LSH: Battle For The Universe
by Bruce Wayne
Summary: Classic Legion tale based on the 1960s characters. Novel-length story with the Legion battling a villian from their far future who is bent on destroying the Earth at all cost. Final chapter is now up! Read the entire story.
1. The Legionnaires Meet

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
FORWARD  
  
Since the dawn of time, man has ever striven for the impossible -- sought the unreachable -- pursued the unattainable. Spearheading the endless struggle for survival, the ceaseless quest for glory, have been the heroes among us.  
  
Each age has its crusaders ... its Batman and Robin ... its Sandman -- heroes all, and more than heroes -- super-heroes all! But none like the super-hero club or team from the 30th century -- The Legion of Super- Heroes.  
  
Who among us can can choose just one, and only one, member to be our favorite? Who can say where comic legend ends and history begins? Who can deny that the myth of the greatest super-hero team ever often outlives the moment?  
  
The following chapters of my story take place in and around what some call the original Legion's timeline of the year 2966. Shortly after Karate Kid, Princess Projectra and Ferro Lad joined the club. These are the original Legionnaires that I grew up with. If you're looking for clones, a dark and dreary universe, and exploding moons, you've probably come to the wrong place.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while. The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of it.  
  
  
  
CHAPTER 1 - THE LEGIONNAIRES MEET  
  
A mechanical voice droned throughout the Legion of Super-Heroes clubhouse complex, "Legionnaires assemble!"  
  
On their view screens in many, many solar systems across the Galaxy, billions of viewers saw that the leader of this famed group of costumed teenagers was dressed in a form-fitting outfit that was mostly brown and tan in color. Around his midriff was a green belt. A thin green swath of cloth went vertically from his belt up to almost mid-chest, where it ended in a green octagon-shaped design. The material around his neck was mostly tan with a wide collar. To complete the uniform was a tan sweat-band around the forehead of the brown-haired teen.  
  
Very few of the people watching on their view-screens probably knew or remembered -- though it wasn't really a secret -- that Invisible Kid's real name was Lyle Norg. Lyle was one of the many Legionnaires who was born on Earth.  
  
As his code-named implied, Lyle could turn invisible. Having earned a degree in biochemistry from Metropolis University at the age of 12, Lyle could easily be called a "boy genius."  
  
His pet project early on was to develop a serum that would make a person invisible. After a few years, he succeeded and managed to perfect his formula, which would enable a person's sweat glands to produce, in mass quantities and on command, a chemical that warps light around a person, rendering him invisible to the naked eye. Lyle, for obvious reasons, tailored the formula to his own physiology.  
  
Second to make an entrance, in answer to the call, was Sun Boy. His costume of Yellow boots, red leglets, and red tunic with a yellow sun emblazoned on it was bright compared to Invisible Kid. "Bright" was the operative word for Dirk Morgna's powers. Sun Boy, who also hailed from Earth, can radiate bright light and can project great heat.  
  
Tall and lithe, with red hair and muscles already rippling like steel  
  
springs, Dirk wore an impish grin on his face as he waved and spoke in a low bantering tone that the video audience could not hear: "Hi, Invisible Kid! How many girls do you think are watching?"  
  
"Never mind that now, Sunny," retorted Invisible Kid evenly without losing the smile on his face.  
  
"Geeeeesse!" Sun Boy sat down, thinking over what quips he could next devise to use on his leader, who was thought to be the second smartest member of the super-hero club.  
  
The video camera caught two more costumed figures as they entered the Legion's Council Room on the main floor of the clubhouse. The Legionnaires known as Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet were in real life, Gim Allon and Salu Digby.  
  
Colossal Boy's form fitting garment of bright green and yellow was adorned with yellow-and-black striped chevrons on his shoulders. His green tunic had a open yellow-colored collar. He also wore yellow leglets with red boots, gloves and a black belt.  
  
Shrinking Violet, as her name implied, was a girl. No one said the Legion had ever been an all-male organization. Salu, who was more often just called "Vi," was extremely attractive in her pea-green dress costume. She wore high, green boots. Her green dress had a white collar and she wore a white choker to complete the ensemble. The uniform only emphasized the lissome strength of the 17-year-old brunette without detracting from her femininity. Sparkling brown eyes, a pert nose and a saucy curve of the lips  
  
hinted at the warmth of her personality.  
  
Oddly, neither Colossal Boy -- who was 5 feet 10 -- nor Shrinking Violet looked "heroic" at first glace. They simply looked like two ordinary teens dressed up in colorful costumes who had wandered in by mistake. What would they be doing with the famed fighting team known as the Legion of Super-Heroes, who had special abilities?  
  
The answer to this paradox came when Invisible Kid greeted them and added, "Please assume your Legionnaire forms before we officially open this meeting."  
  
"Okay, Lyle," nodded Gim Allon, stiffening with a concentrated look on his face, as if willing himself to do something. Suddenly and startingly, before billions of eyes across the galaxy, he began to grow. Taller and taller he shot up, his shoulders broadening in proportion and his body expanding in unison. His uniform of specially elastic materials stretched along with him. Eight feet ... ten ... twelve feet he towered and still kept growing until ...  
  
Bonk!  
  
"Ow! My head!" He joked. "Can't they make ceilings high enough for a fifteen foot guy?"  
  
Out over space, there was a ripple of laughter. But it died swiftly as people stared in awe at the video image of a brown-haired fifteen-foot giant, and it was plain to see why he was a Legionnaire. Massive muscles over his mighty form spoke of the enormous power he now possessed like an oversized Samson and Hercules rolled into one.  
  
And now his voice had gone down several tones to a deep rumble as he boomed: "Colossal Boy, present!"  
  
Meanwhile, Shrinking Violet was also changing size, the girl from the planet Imsk, was going the opposite way. She began shrinking steadily, becoming smaller and smaller, to the size of a dog ... a cat ... a mouse ... and still tinier. Finally -- as the audience across the galaxy could anticipate from her name -- she was only the size of an insect and the video camera had to zoom in just to see her.  
  
It was not black magic. It was the biological "magic" of all the people on the planet where Violet came from. Everyone on Imsk was capable of shrinking to microscopic size.  
  
Violet's forte lay not in deeds of strength, but in feats of tiny cleverness that often turned the tables against their powerful adversaries when all seemed lost. Most Legionnaires were awed by Violet for her performance of miniature miracles when sorely needed, particularly to evade dangerous traps.  
  
Attaining her final insect-sized tininess, she flew gracefully through the air with the assistance of her Legion flight ring to land on Colossal Boy's shoulder, sitting there pertly.  
  
"Mind if I park here, High Pockets?" she piped in a thin buzzing voice.  
  
"No charge for parking," rumbled Colossal Boy with a straight face. "Anyway, not for a cute girl like you."  
  
It didn't take any great detective ability to see that the glance between the two pairs of eyes, gigantic and miniscule, was the look of two people infatuated with one another.  
  
As their elected leader, Invisible Kid spoke in a authoritative tone, "Legionnaires, we are assembled not for an emergency, but to ..."  
  
"Hey, wait," interrupted Sun Boy irreverently, glancing around. "A couple of members are missing, Invisible Kid -- where's old Rust Bucket? Pardon me ... Ferro Lad? And Brainy?"  
  
"Hold on, Dirk," said Invisible Kid dryly to Sun Boy. "I was coming to that. As many of you know, some members who were supposed to be here are not, as of yet -- Ferro Lad and Brainiac 5 were invited to participate in this program but they haven't arrived yet."  
  
Invisible Kid held up an omnicom. The reason is stated here in a message from Brainiac 5: TESTING NEW MATERIAL IN FERRO LAD'S UNIFORM. WILL BE DELAYED ATTENDING THE LEGION'S MEMORIAL MEET."  
  
Glancing at the video camera, Lyle added, "But since we can't hold up the entire galaxy that is watching, we'll start the proceedings anyway. Braniac 5 and Ferro Lad should show up at any moment.  
  
To be continued ... 


	2. Mount Everest Mystery

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while. The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of it.  
  
CHAPTER 2 - MOUNT EVEREST MYSTERY  
  
Far across the world in the Himalayas, a gray-armored figure glinting in the sun was soaring through the blue sky, circling, darting, swooping among the tallest mountain peaks on Earth.  
  
Down below, on the ground, Braniac 5 was communicating with Ferro Lad through a radio link that was built into Ferro's iron mask. "The treacherous downdrafts and updrafts here are the best test for the new lightweight material in your uniform, Ferro Lad."  
  
Ferro Lad, with the help of his Legion flight ring, zoomed at 500 miles per hour toward a mountain cliff, then veered sharply upward to sail safely  
  
over its jagged edge. He communicated back to Brainiac 5, "It's all working fine, Brainy."  
  
To any watcher, it would have been an unbelievable sight -- a heavy metallic form gliding through the air with buoyant ease. The iron suit, at the moment, was gray in color. But when Ferro Lad turned his power off, the suit took on a different look. With a white mask that covered all his features except for two eye holes, the rest of his special suit was blue and white in color with the letters "Fe," the scientific symbol for iron, emblazoned on his chest. His gloves and boots were tinted crimson. In general appearance, he looked like a manlike robot out of the future.  
  
Yet this was no mechanical being. Within the iron "uniform" -- unknown to most of the world and universe at large -- was Andrew Nolan of Earth. His power gave him not only the protection from physical harm and super strength, but also protected him from emotional harm, as well.  
  
Nolan's story was one of the strangest in the Legion. Andrew's mother was a famous actress. She was vain enough that she expected that the children of herself and her handsome husband would be good- looking as well. This was very important to her. However, things didn't quite go as planned. She gave birth to twins, both of whom had facial features that were terribly deformed. Their father was killed in a spaceship crash.  
  
The two children, who were raised in secrecy, were said to be nothing alike. Andrew was very outgoing and wished to experience every- thing that life could possibly offer. On the other hand, his brother Douglas was quiet and introverted. When the two boys discovered that they were mutants who had the power to turn into living iron, it was Andrew who went out and became Ferro Lad.  
  
Supporting Ferro Lad on the ground was one of the best known Legionnaires, Brainiac 5. "Brainy," as most of his teammates called him, was really Querl Dox from the planet Colu. The best way to describe Brainiac 5's superior intellect is to say that on the accepted galactic intelligence scale, the average person on Earth has a sixth-level intellect. The average Coluan is a ten. Brainiac 5 is rated at twelve.  
  
The blonde-haired, green-skinned Querl inherited his intellect from his well-known family blood line that dated back a thousand years to the 20th century. The use of the name "Brainiac" is actually an honored title on Colu in which significant intellectual accomplishment was rewarded. Querl became only the fifth person to earn the title, and he did so at the age of twelve.  
  
Querl traveled to Earth to do research at the Time Institute, where he invented the Time Bubble, which became the primary mode of time travel in the 30th century. When he encountered the Legion, during a battle between them and the Darkstars -- he decided that the Legion was a suitable place for his talents. He applied and was accepted for Legion membership together with Supergirl.  
  
Brainiac 5, who always wears a dark purple outfit, has invented and improved upon many devices. He invented a force-field belt, which he has used throughout his Legion career. He also later developed the Legion's flight rings -- which Ferro Lad was using right now.  
  
What Brainiac 5 and Ferro Lad were testing out, at the moment, was a lighter-weight material for Ferro's uniform that Brainy had developed. But because of its lighter weight, Andrew would have to test the feel of it by flying in the toughest imaginable conditions. Thus, they came to the Himalayan Mountains that bordered what had once been India and Nepal.  
  
"Mount Everest is the final test," Ferro Lad thought to himself. "Braving the blasts and roaring winds around its peak, piercing six miles high into the air, will prove whether I really have the all-weather flying ability I want with this lighter suit. So, here goes ..."  
  
Ferro Lad flew upward as the majestic peak reared before him ... higher ... higher ... higher ... higher. A fierce canyon gale knocked him 500 feet sideways, but he recovered. A sudden downdraft like a smashing blow, made him gasp as he plummeted a thousand feet down toward the jagged ice blocks. But with a surge he flew back upward into the teeth of the howling downwind.  
  
Next an updraft flung him like a cork, straight up for a mile, way beyond the tip of Everest. He fought his way down from the numbingly high heights, agilely aiming for the summit. When a vicious whirlwind of air mixed with snow spun him around in a relentless grip, Ferro Lad turned himself broadside and maneuvered into the quiet "eye," then safely sped out of one side of the whirlpool.  
  
The next instant, something yanked him downward again, with staggering force. How many tricks did the mighty mountain have to try against this talented teenager?  
  
"Wait, there's something different about this," he said to himself. "It's not a downdraft at all. It feels more like ... Magnetism?" The last questioning thought brought a gasp of startled surprise from his disfigured lips.  
  
"Brainy, are you doing something to change the conditions of the test?" he radioed.  
  
Brainiac 5 was a bit puzzled by the Nolan's question. "Ferro Lad, I'm not doing anything. What's happening?"  
  
"Since when did Everest display magnetic force?" Ferro Lad asked.  
  
"Magnetic force has never been reported by the various expeditions who reached the top and conducted scientific experiments there," Brainy answered.  
  
Ferro Lad applied more power into his flying, but the powerful force kept pulling him downward.  
  
"I can't break out of it," he told Brainiac 5 over their comm-link. Brainy could hear the panic creeping into Andrew's voice. Ferro radioed: "I'll smash into the peak at a thousand miles an hour!"  
  
Ferro Lad didn't dare finish the thought of wonder if his nearly invulnerable body could withstand such a frightful impact. He had never tried to find out if he could take such an impact.  
  
As his gray form hurtled downward, in the grip of an incredible magnetic force, he suddenly spied something at the tip of Mount Everest. There, in a flat stretch of bare wind-swept rock was something unbelievable.  
  
"Brainy! I don't know if I'm having hallucinations from oxygen starvation," Ferro radioed. "But I see a gigantic machine! It must be a powerful electromagnet!"  
  
"You shouldn't be suffering from oxygen starvation, Ferro Lad. You have a built in oxygen supply in your uniform ..." Brainiac droned on.  
  
Ferro Lad wasn't really listening. More details could be seen as he spun lower and closer. Banks of horseshoe-shaped magnets ran side by side, on top of a framework support, below which lay a bulging sphere of riveted steel. obviously the power supply. A violet purling glow surrounded the sphere, the telltale sign of a nuclear dynamo. But it must be of enormous power to feed the electromagnets and create enough magnetism to bring Ferro Lad down from a mile high.  
  
Back on the ground, Brainiac 5 used magnified viewfinders to locate Ferro Lad. He looked toward the peak of Everest and spotted a glint of metal reflected from the sun. He pressed a button on the viewfinder and activated a multiple-data gauge and his eyes grew wide.  
  
"One billion gauss?" Even his thoughts babbled now. "Why, that's thousands of times stronger than any magnet ever produced in a research lab! That's enough magnetic pull to pull apart a skyscraper beam by beam. It could, if aimed at the moon, even begin to pull it steadily out of orbit."  
  
Brainiac 5 knew he was not imagining wild things. He was a scientist. He knew exactly what this unprecedented magnetic force could do -- the unthinkable.  
  
Now Brainiac 5's amazed thoughts turned to other burning questions. How had this supermagent come here? Who was behind it? What was its purpose?  
  
All of those questions had gone through the mind of Ferro Lad as well as he fell like a stone, straight down toward that inescapable giant magnet. He noticed several meteorites whizzing past him, also attracted to the huge horeshow-shaped device. They were meteors that had been sailing past Earth and were simply yanked out their age-old space trajectory!  
  
Ferro Lad saw that the arriving meteors did not harm the super- magnet. Ten feet above the device, they met an invisible cushion and bounced away harmlessly. What sort of superscientific force field was protecting this magnet?  
  
Ferro Lad rolled up his eyes, breathing his last prayer as he plummeted down the final hundred feet at meteoric velocity.  
  
***  
  
Across the world at the Legion clubhouse, Invisible Kid glanced at the chronometer with a slight frown. "What's with Brainy and Ferro Lad?" he thought worriedly. "Why aren't they here yet?"  
  
He then turned to look at the video camera, and spoke for the benefit of their vast unseen audience. "This is a special event in the Legion's annals. We decided to hold this Meet in honor of the founding members of our club. Unfortunately, they are engaged elsewhere in their own solo activities. But we still want to take the opportunity to honor them for their great service as Legionnaires."  
  
Lyle Norg paused to stab his finger at a button on the podium's control board. the lights dimmed in the great hall. Then an automatic spot- light swung down to limelight a large lifesize statue standing in an arched niche in the wall.  
  
Underneath one of the three figures depicted in engraved stone was the code-name -- COSMIC BOY.  
  
No doubt a vast cheer went up from billions of homes across the galaxy. But the Legionnaires sat silently honoring their first leader with an unvoiced accolade. Invisible Kid then spoke in official tribute:  
  
"Cosmic Boy, the magno-ball champ who journeyed from the planet Braal to Earth to become the first leader of the Legion of Super- Heroes. His great magentic control powers and courage led the way for the Legion in the beginning when we needed him most. There were several times in the past that I can remember "Cos" battling villainous foes and he  
  
used his magnetic powers to confound our enemies. We can all remember the numerous times he saved our lives or how ..."  
  
"Or," muttered Sun Boy, fidgeting in his seat, "Cosmic Boy's pompous attitude and the Braalian lingo he used."  
  
"A philologist," observed Shrinking Violet in defense of Cosmic Boy, from Colossal Boy's shoulder, "you are not, Sunny. Look it up on the computer dictionary ..."  
  
"I know," growled Sun Boy. "Under Ph, not F. You mean "Cos" has word-skill, eh? That's funny -- under F, not Ph." Sun Boy silently threw up his hands in surrender.  
  
Invisible Kid was saying, "In conclusion, we can all say well done Cosmic Boy! At present he has returned on a mission to his home planet of Braal."  
  
Lyle pressed another button and the spotlight shifted to another figure on the statue titled LIGHTNING LAD, a teen in a caped uniform with depicted lightning bolts coming from his hands.  
  
"Like his code-name," said Invisible Kid, "Lightning Lad is able to produce great bolts of lightning from his hands. From the planet Winath, Garth Ranzz, his sister Ayla -- who is the Legionnaire Light Lass -- and their older brother, crash landed their spaceship on the planetoid Korbal. In order to re-power the spaceship, they tried to attract Lightning Beasts toward it, but instead of recharging the ship, the beasts attacked and charged the three Ranzz siblings with their lightning. Fortunately, rather than getting killed, the three gained the power to discharge electricity."  
  
Invisible Kid choked up a bit and said, "Garth's life has been one of bravery and misfortune. We even lost him at one time. After two years in the Legion, Garth died saving Saturn Girl and Earth from the Khundish fleets of Zaryan the Conqueror. When the Legion found a way to restore Garth's life at the expense of another, Saturn Girl resolved to be the one to die for him. But her life was saved by Proty, a pet of Chameleon Boy who led her away, disguised itself as her and died for Lightning Lad itself. Lightning Lad lost his arm in battle with a Dxaundii wingfish enlarged into  
  
a "Super-Moby-Dick" of space. He managed to get his arm grown back with the assistance of Doctor Zan Orbal. Lightning Lad is one Legionnaire who can say that he has looked death in the face and won."  
  
"Is Lyle for real?" snorted Sun Boy in a low tone. "You'd think Garth was ..."  
  
"Shush!" spat out Shrinking Violet.  
  
"Oh, come on now, Vi! You'd think ... Ulk!"  
  
Sun Boy's whisper choked off for the simple reason that Colossal Boy's huge forefinger and thumb around his throat had given a tiny squeeze ... enough to make Dirk turn purple, unable to catch his breath, let alone talk for the next few moments.  
  
Invisible Kid had the spotlight turn to the third figure on the statue. Another girl like Violet was portrayed, and the code-name under the figure read: SATURN GIRL.  
  
"Imra Ardeen is Saturn Girl," explained Invisible Kid for the benefit of the galaxy-wide audience that was watching. "No Legionnaire has served with greater distinction than Saturn Girl who comes from Titan. Saturn Girl is able to read peoples' minds, either by consciously willing it or by mentally picking up their stray thoughts. With her telepathic power, she can also send messages into the minds of others. Imra can also use her powers to influence peoples' minds."  
  
"So?" muttered Sun Boy. "I can give people hot foot's. Who pats me on the back? If you ask me ..."  
  
"We aren't asking you a thing, Tell-it-all," came from Shrinking Violet icily. "Wait your turn, Dirk."  
  
Sun Boy glared at Violet. Colossal Boy glared at Sun Boy. Sun Boy decided to glare elsewhere.  
  
The overhead lights came on again and Invisible Kid snapped erect. "In conclusion, let us salute the founding members of the Legion of Super-Heroes for leadership, courage and deeds ... may they be remembered forever."  
  
As they started to rise to their feet, a tiny voice buzzed in Gim Allon's ear. "Careful, High pockets ... the ceiling, you know."  
  
Barely in time, Colossal Boy bent his neck and stood half bowed as they all saluted the statue of the three founding members of the Legion.  
  
Invisible Kid turned and smiled into the video camera, relaxing. But inside he was wondering, "When is Brainiac 5 and Ferro Lad going to show up? What's keeping them? Did they run into something unusual?"  
  
To be continued ... 


	3. Tazz, The Invader

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 3 - TAZZ, THE INVADER  
  
Invisible Kid could hardly guess how unusual was the "something"  
that Ferro Lad and Brainiac 5 had run into and how deadly. Ferro Lad  
was currently plummeting like a stone toward the mammoth electromagnet  
on the peak of Mount Everest, pulled downward by superpowerful forces.  
  
But he had not given up all hope. Through his swirling mind, a  
plan of action -- even though it wasn't much -- was forming. He tried   
to turn his body perpendicular to the magnet. He wanted to attempt  
to strike the force field so that his back would take most of the impact.  
  
Clashing forces flung him back a bit as he fought the supermagnetic  
pull below. He imagined that it was like trying to paddle a canoe up a   
waterfall. Still, he was able to turn his body somewhat. Could he distribute  
the force of the impact enough across his body to save himself from being  
cracked open like an eggshell against the force-field cushion?  
  
Fifty feet ... 25 ... 10 ... 5 ... WHAM!  
  
A shriek tore from Andrew Nolan's lips as his iron-like body   
slammed into the force-field. But his invulnerable body held up without  
cracking into several pieces. With no more than his wind knocked out,  
Ferro Lad bounced a hundred feet high from the force-field barrier, then  
fell off to the side toward bare hard rock.  
  
Shaking off reeling dizziness, Ferro Lad managed to land on his   
feet with no more of a jar than that of someone jumping down ten feet. He  
swayed on his feet for a moment, almost collapsing. His blurred eyes   
cleared up and focused -- on a man in a strange costume.  
  
Ferro Lad stared in wonder. The man was dressed in clothing that  
resembled no style ever seen on Earth before. His height and figure were  
average. Strangest of all was the malevolent expression in his frosty blue  
eyes, infinitely cold and hostile.  
  
"An intruder," came his harsh voice, as if he owned Mount Everest.  
"But you are different from the other Earth-people on my world monitor  
screen. You appear to be encased in protective armor. Who are you?"  
  
Ferro Lad whispered into his comm-link, "Brainy, I think you better  
get up here." He then addressed the man in front of him, "They call me Ferro  
Lad, the Legionnaire." He waved at the humming machine, still awed. "And  
just who are you? Did you build this supermagnet? And why?"  
  
The stranger drew himself up regally, and spoke in lofty tones, "I am  
Tazz, the Invader!"  
  
"I imagine I'm supposed to tremble at the name," said Ferro Lad  
sarcastically, "But you might as well have just said Joe, for all the name  
means to me.Where do you do your so-called invading?"  
  
"All over the universe, my mocking friend. World after world among  
the stars has fallen before my invincible legion of space warcraft. I am not a  
native of Earth. I am from a far-off world of superscience beyond your  
imagination."  
  
Ferro Lad would have put him down for a harmless crackpot,   
except for one thing -- the supermagnet. You couldn't laugh that off.  
Just then, Brainiac 5 floated down to join the two would-be combatants  
who were seemingly involved in a standoff. Brainy landed softly and  
his eyes flickered back and forth from the supermagent and the strangely-  
clad Tazz.  
  
Ferro quickly explained to Brainiac 5, "He says his name is Tazz  
from a distant planet that isn't too neighborly. Likes to invade worlds,   
we've heard that a few times, haven't we, Brainy?"  
  
Brainiac 5 looked at Tazz and said, "I see that evolution on your  
world produced the same type of human species that we are."  
  
"You are mistaken, Green One," denied Tazz. A faint smile played  
about his lips. "Prepare for a shock, human. We control metabolic  
transformation of our body tissues at will. Watch ... this is how I really look."  
  
Before Brainiac 5 and Ferro Lad's eyes, the human form of Tazz  
began to subtly and steadily later, like a man melting down and changing  
into something else. The face and other human attributes faded into an  
amorphous mass, over which a new face and form began to superimpose  
themselves.  
  
The two Legionnaires watched as they saw Tazz change, portion  
by portion, until there stood before them a shocking monstrosity. He was,  
in general, still semi-man like, and not changed in general size. But all else  
was utter madness.  
  
A face with blotched purple skin ... ghastly green lips ... hair of  
poisonous blue ... and eyes that were fiery red like hot coals. The arms  
had changed into boneless tentacles with ten tender "fingers" that writhed.  
The two gnarled legs ended in hooves instead feet.  
  
It was surrealistic creature beyond the imagination of a gone-mad  
artist ... a nightmare beyond the wildest fantasy of the human mind -- yet  
there was intelligence in the creature's face. Superintelligence, in fact. The  
Legionnaires could expect no mercy or pity from such coldly inhuman  
intellect.  
  
"Appalled, humans?" mocked the alien. "But let me hasten to inform  
you that nausea strikes me when I gaze upon your horribly repulsive human  
form."  
  
"Big deal!" Ferro Lad exclaimed. "We see Chameleon Boy do that  
once a week. And Princess Projectra can conjure up even more frightening  
things."  
  
"I know of nothing of those you mention," Tazz replied as he began  
reversing the process, his monstrous form slowly metamorphosizing back to  
the human "disguise" he had worn before.  
  
"It is not to spare your eyes that I adopt human form on Earth," Tazz  
commented, "But because in my own form I am dangerously unadapted to  
the environment. On our native planet we breathe clorine gas. And only in  
human guise can I breathe this horrible oxygen in your atmosphere, poisonous  
to us."  
  
Tazz shrugged and went on. "To satisfy your curiosity as to why I  
speak your language fluently, I have been on your world a week now. During  
that time I learned all languages.  
  
"All of them?" gasped Brainiac 5  
  
"Including all local idiom," nodded Tazz. With a wry face, he turned  
haughty. "I know everything else about Earth from my long-range sensors,  
scanners and monitors -- the continents and oceans, mountains, rivers; also  
cities, people and politics."  
  
"That's fairly impressive to absorb all that in one week," said Brainiac  
5, aware of the superintelligence facing him. "But you apparently never heard   
of the Legion of Super-Heroes."  
  
"You two are of no consequence to me."  
  
"You have come, I suppose, to invade Earth now?" Ferro Lad asked.  
  
"No, Masked One."  
  
Prepared for an affirmative answer, Ferro Lad and Brainiac 5 were  
amazed.  
  
"But you boasted of how many other planets you had invaded. Then   
what else could you be here for?" Ferro asked the alien.  
  
"To destroy Earth!" hissed Tazz, his eyes seething in ferocious   
hatred.  
  
  
***  
  
  
In Metropolis, the Legion's colorful Meet played on to a rapt   
audience across the galaxy.  
  
"We have honored the founding members of the Legion of  
Super-Heroes," announced Invisible Kid. "We will now review some  
of the Legionnaires we have with us today and give you their origin and  
special abilities. First, a guy who sits fifteen feet tall and I'm not   
exaggerating when I say he can grow much larger. Here he is, the man  
mountain ... the walking skyscraper ... Colossal Boy!"  
  
The spotlight limned the huge 15-foot form and a gasp sounded  
in every home across the galaxy that had a video monitor. Shrinking Violet  
had flown off his shoulder. "This is your show, Big Boy. I'll go press the  
button for the elephant to come on stage."  
  
Flying to the podium, Violet darted down and jammed the button  
with her descending feet, just before Invisible Kid's finger got there. She  
grinned impishly at him.  
  
Out in the middle of the large Legion Council Hall, a big door  
flew open and a moving platform dame into view, on which stood a  
huge bull elephant with one end of a heavy rope wrapped in its trunk.  
Colossal Boy picked up the other end. The rope tightened as he braced  
himself and the trained elephant began to pull.  
  
"A tug of war between Colossal Boy and a five-ton elephant,"  
sang out Invisible Kid. "Don't bet too soon on the wrong one!"  
  
At first, the powerful beast began to back up, dragging Colossal  
Boy forward. But then the towering Gim Allon planted his feet, rippled  
his muscles, and began a slow, steady pull that first halted the elephant,  
then -- incredibly -- dragged him forward foot by foot, and finally brought  
him across the dividing line.  
  
Colossal Boy took a bow in the spotlight as the other Legionnaires  
applauded. "You know it's not the muscle but sheer weight that wins a tug  
of war," said Sun Boy maliciously, eyeing Shrinking Violet. "It's a good  
thing that cloudscraper has splenty of fat -- between his ears."  
  
"Fat or not," said Violet sweetly, "it can outthink whatever stuffing  
they put in your skull ... probably rocks."  
  
Invisible Kid cleared his throat as Colossal Boy sat down.  
  
"Now listen to the strange story of Colossal Boy. He was an ordinary   
Science Police cadet when he took a vacation on Mars. While on Mars, a  
radioactive meteor landed right at his feet. This injured him and put him in the   
Science Police Academy's infirmary. Soon after being released, he spotted   
a crime in progress. As he chased the criminal, who tried to get away by using   
the elevator, Gim managed to catch him anyway -- by growing to a height of   
fifteen feet tall. His mother suggested that his power might be of better use in  
the Legion of Super-Heroes than in the Science Police, and Gim, calling   
himself Colossal Boy, took that advice. And we're glad he did!  
  
The spotlight now swung to Shrinking Violet, again perched on  
Colossal Boy's shoulder.  
  
Lyle Norg continued reading from his notes, "Salu Digby is from the   
planet Imsk, where everyone there is capable of shrinking to microscopic  
size. Shrinking Violet has shared in many Legion adventures, doing her part  
in confounding our foes."  
  
Sun Boy was about to make a sarcastic remark when the spotlight  
fell on him. He bounced to his feet.  
  
"Actually, Sun Boy doesn't need our spotlight," came Invisible   
Kid's buildup. "Because he can provide his own whenever he needs one."  
  
In the middle of the Council Hall floor, Sun Boy began to glow.  
The light emanating from body became brighter and brighter until everyone's  
eyes began to hurt. The Legionnaires in the room had to turn away and  
shield their eyes.  
  
"See, folks? Sun Boy can radiate brighter light than any artificial  
light source in the known universe," Invisible Kid described. Sun Boy,  
acting nonchalant, returned to his seat.  
  
Lyle's voice resumed as he explained Sun Boy's background:  
"Dirk's father, a scientist, hired a Doctor Zaxton Regulus to work in his  
laboratory. Dirk, at the time, was doing odd jobs in the laboratory. The   
two got along badly from the start, and Regulus became angry when Dirk   
interrupted an illegal experiment that Regulus was performing. The resulting   
accident killed one of Dirk's co-workers, and destroyed Regulus's career.   
Regulus blamed Dirk and locked him in a nuclear reactor for revenge. But   
Dirk was lucky. Instead of killing him, the radiation turned him into a living   
sun. With the power to radiate bright light, as you have witnessed, he tried   
out for the Legion and was, at first, turned down. He reapplied later after   
discovering that he was also able to project heat and was accepted."  
  
Violet grew back to her normal size and whispered to Invisible Kid:  
"Ferro Lad was supposed to get the next buildup. What do you suppose is  
holding him up?"  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	4. Earth Doom

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 4 - EARTH DOOM  
  
  
In the bleak iciness at Mount Everest's peak, Tazz, the alien,  
invader of a host of worlds, spoke again. "No, I came not to invade  
Earth but to destroy it. I will wreck this world and annihilate all humans  
on Earth, every last one."  
  
Ferro Lad was stunned by Tazz's threat and by the venom of his  
words. "But why? What has Earth done to you or your faraway world?"  
  
"That is too long a tale to explain right now," responded Tazz  
abruptly. "I am wasting time. I must set the coordinates of my ultramagnet  
and keep it centered on its target."  
  
"Just what is your ultramagnet aimed at, out in space?" asked   
Brainiac 5.  
  
"I have no time for frivolous explanations," Tazz answered sharply.  
"It is part of my plan to destroy Earth, that's all you need to know before  
you ... die!"  
  
With that, he pressed a button on his belt. A livid ray sprang forth  
and a rock next to Ferro Lad turned to dust. Brainiac 5 pressed a button  
on his own belt and his force-field was activated. Tazz's next ray struck  
Ferro Lad squarely in the chest.  
  
"Good-bye, Masked One," said Tazz, starting to turn toward Brainy.  
He swung is eyes back, in a double-take. "You're still standing there!" he  
gasped.  
  
"Sure," said Ferro Lad cheerfully. "Whatever your gizmo was   
supposed to do, it failed because I'm invulnerable.  
  
Tazz quickly turned to Brainiac 5 and again fired his ray. One more  
time, he failed because of Brainy's invulnerable force-field.  
  
Respect shone in Tazz's eyes for the first time. "I see you are very  
special humans, equipped to battle superforces."  
  
"That's correct," Brainiac 5 came back. "And it so happens that we  
are members of the Legion of Super-Heroes, I'm an official guardian of Earth.  
Now I'm demanding you off this world ... you and your machine, both ... Or  
else!"  
  
"Or else you will drive me off?" Tazz said with a scornful laugh. "All  
right, do so."  
  
"You asked for it, you monster." Ferro Lad was getting ready for  
action. He charged forward suddenly. "I'm going to knock you halfway to  
Neptune," he grated between clenched teeth.  
  
Ferro Lad wondered why Tazz didn't move, why he didn't show the  
slightest fear. Except for his belt, he seemed unarmed, helpless. Ferro Lad  
swung his fist, ready to knock all the fight out of the alien right from the start  
with his super-strength.  
  
Klang!  
  
Ferro Lad's balled fist struck some invisible barrier before it reached  
Tazz. Nolan reeled back himself, seeing now the glowing aura that surrounded  
Tazz protectively.  
  
"I should've known," the Legionnaire chided himself. "Brainy, he has a  
force-field around himself like you have!" He looked back at Tazz, "Don't  
worry, Pal, I'm not through. I've got a dozen other fighting tactics to try."  
  
Tensing himself, Ferro Lad prepared for all-out battle against a  
superscientific foe.  
  
  
***  
  
  
On the podium at the Legion's gathering, Invisible Kid said to the  
video audience across the galaxy, "We still have a special surprise for every-  
one! Last, but the furthest from the least you can get is a popular Legionnaire  
who we haven't introduced yet.Even though he's one of our newer members,   
he's known not only to the younger people of today, but to everyone!"   
  
"Invisible Kid pressed a couple of buttons on the podium and a  
door opened and spotlight shone on ... "Karate Kid!"  
  
A smile was on Karate Kid's face as he entered the Council Hall.  
Karate Kid, whose real name was Val Armorr, was born on Earth. He  
wore a tannish-brown martial arts gi uniform with, of course, a black belt.  
Brown gloves and boots completed his outfit.  
  
Invisible Kid completed his introduction, "Karate Kid was adopted as  
an infant and was raised by a master of the martial arts. The master trained Val   
in all manner of the martial arts. Val became the youngest warrior ever to earn   
the title Samurai in Japan. Karate Kid is an expert in all forms of hand-to-hand  
combat and in combat with martial arts weapons. Although he officially has no   
superhuman powers, he was accepted as a member of the Legion when he   
demonstrated, by almost defeating Superboy in combat, just how effective   
he could be .. Go to it, Kid!"  
  
The spotlight broadened to take in a phaser ray gun that came out  
of a recess in the wall, with a android behind it.  
  
"That phaser rifle will be fired by an automatic device. The android  
is just a target for Karate Kid," said Lyle Norg. "Watch!"  
  
Crouching slightly and standing sideways, Karate Kid waited until  
a loud whinning sound crashed the silence. At almost the same second, he  
leaped forward and rolled to the floor to avoid the ray of death.  
  
Like a tiger, he sprang forward, leaping in great bounds, powered  
by strong leg muscles. He had spent countless hours at some of the toughest  
training camps ever known -- to hone his skills. And virtually everyday he  
spent endless hours between duties in the Legion's superb gym, practicing  
his martial arts and gymnastics skills that made his body a smooth human  
fighting machine with speed, power, and quickness of reflexes.  
  
Where Colossal Boy could rely on his giant form, Sun Boy on his  
bright light and heat, and even Ferro Lad with his being able to turn into  
virtual indestructible iron, Karate Kid had nothing to depend on except  
his skill and wits.  
  
Running straight into the barrage of a death ray, moving just enough  
so that it would miss him, Karate Kid made an incredible flying leap. While  
landing head foremost, his mighty rock-hard fist swung against the android's  
chin, knocking his enemy twenty feet away. The phaser ray gun stopped  
firing and Karate Kid stood up, a momentary triumph lighting his face.  
  
"Great, Val!" yelled Sun Boy, leaping to his feet, as all the video  
audience must had been doing.  
  
"Why, Sun Boy!" rumbled Colossal Boy, half accusingly. "You  
actually said something good about someone for once."  
  
Sun Boy flushed guiltily.  
  
"Amazing!" muttered Gim, shaking his head as if to clear it. "Don't  
let it happen again, Dirk, or we'll begin to think that down underneath it  
all you're an alright guy."  
  
Invisible Kid had a shock -- two shocks -- for the audience. "That  
android weighed two hundred and fifty pounds. And that phaser rifle was  
real. Karate Kid insisted on it -- he doesn't believe in fakery."  
  
All over the galaxy people were amazed. They hardly had to be  
told the conclusion spoken by Invisible Kid: "And so, the primary quality   
that won this peerless battler Legion membership is his one-man-army   
fighting ability!"  
  
The Legionnaire in the brown gi uniform was flattered ... but also  
worried. He had heard that Ferro Lad and Brainiac 5 were overdue and  
apparently missing. Their absence was now definitely alarming.  
  
  
***  
  
  
Across the world on Mount Everest, Ferro Lad tried a new tactic  
against Tazz, the Invader. Andrew flew high into the air at an incredible  
velocity. He was only a blur to the human eye. He flew high into the sky   
over Everest, into the clouds. A few moments later, he flew in at a high   
rate of speed popping up right behind Tazz, who was taken by surprise.  
  
An iron fist lashed out and caught the alien in the small of the back,  
sending him sprawling ignominiously.  
  
"I thought so," grated Braniac 5. "Your force-field only protects  
you from the front, not from the back. It's not a curving shield all around  
you but a flat barrier that can protect you only on one side. I instructed  
Ferro Lad by our comm-link to attack you from the rear."  
  
"Clever deduction, Green One," snarled Tazz leaping to his feet.  
"But it will gain you nothing. And now let us see if you can withstand my  
lightning-blast ray."  
  
Tazz touched another button on his belt and lightning flash sprang  
forth toward Brainiac 5. Though it didn't harm him, Brainy raised his arms  
protectively up toward his face as a dazzling display of sparks flew off  
his own force-field barrier. The Legion's top mind could see that the  
alien's ray was comprised of unbelivable voltage.  
  
"Sorry, Tazz," Brainy explained. "Our own Lightning Lad has   
already tested my force-field against great electrical power bolts. His  
result was the same as yours."  
  
Ferro Lad flew back into the air in a blur-swift arch, to come   
down directly behind Tazz again. An iron leg swung before the alien  
could turn.  
  
"Owwww!" It was a very human-sounding yelp from Tazz as an  
iron boot connected with the proper part of his anatomy in back.  
  
"A kick in the pants is only the first of the punishment you're  
going to take," Ferro Lad vowed grimly, darting away as the infuriated  
alien whirled and shot forth another ray, which missed.  
  
A strange duel began then. Again and again, Andrew twisted   
through the air in swift flight, circling to come up behind Tazz and deliver  
blows at his unprotected back. Angrily, Tazz shot forth a variety of rays,  
all of which sprang off Ferro Lad's armor without doing any harm.  
  
"You'll be a mass of bruises from the back of your head down to  
your heels," promised Ferro relentlessly delivering another blow from the  
rear.  
  
Tazz cursed in a language that Brainiac 5 and Ferro Lad were   
unfamiliar with. "It's not you," said the alien, "but your iron suit that I am  
fighting."  
  
He suddenly touched another button on his belt. The ray that struck  
Ferro Lad seemed to do nothing at all. He felt no blow, no force. But with  
a gasp he noticed the trail of red dust left in the air as he flew in a loop.  
  
"Yes, iron oxide," gloated Tazz. "That was a Rust-ray, with the  
ability to oxidize iron instantly. Keep coming until I can turn your whole  
suit into crumbling dust."  
  
Brainiac 5 saw Ferro Lad try to twist and loop in the air, but Tazz  
made an adjustment on his belt and the rust-ray expanded into a wide cone  
constantly bathing its target. Andrew could sense his uniform and mask  
were crumbling away, layer by layer.  
  
It was a losing battle. If his metal suit and mask turned into rust,  
he would be literally naked in the cold Himalayas, at the very least. He   
opened the comm-link to Brainiac 5, "Brainy, I've got to get out of here.   
His ray is doing something to my suit!"  
  
Going at full speed, Ferro Lad spun away from the peak of  
Mount Everest as fast as he could.  
  
Brainiac 5 said, "Round one goes to you, Tazz." With that,  
Brainy flew upwards and away from the dangerous alien. "But we'll  
return ... with other Legionnaires."  
  
"You will be doing me a favor," came back the challenge. "I  
want to prove how futile it is for any humans to match wits and weapons  
with me. Nothing can stop me from fulfilling my mission -- Earth's  
destruction."  
  
Brainiac 5 was worried about the threat. It was a sign of the  
superior evil mind they were pitted against.  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	5. A Mission For The Legion

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 5 - A MISSION FOR THE LEGION  
  
  
Back in Metropolis at the Legion clubhouse, Invisible Kid, head  
lowered, was charging Sun Boy, who was creating blasts of brilliant light  
in an attempt to stun and stall Lyle's attack.  
  
The Legion "Gladiator Games" were on, a planned event for the   
Meet. Billions of viewers across the galaxy thrilled to see these modern  
teenage gladiators battling one another to sharpen their fighting skills.  
  
It was not, of course, a battle to the death. The rules were that  
the Legionnaires would pair off, round robin, and each try to gain a point  
over their adversary, while Shrinking Violent kept score.  
  
It would be a point if any Legionnaire could get close to his  
opponent to "tag" them. The "tag" was usually a hard, good-natured slap  
to the opponent.  
  
Sun Boy continued to try to blind and stun Invisible Kid. But  
Invisible Kid used his power so that Dirk wouldn't know where in the  
room he was.   
  
Because he couldn't see Invisible Kid anymore, Sun Boy decided  
to throw a little heat into the room. The temperature shot up to about  
140 degrees (F) pretty quick.  
  
But it wasn't Invisible Kid who responded to the heat. "Knock it  
off, Dirk! I can't take it in here, it's too damn hot!" Violet yelled at him.  
  
Sun Boy turned to reply to the girl and that was all the distraction  
Invisible Kid needed when he turned visible once again and was just about  
to "tag" Dirk when ...  
  
"Hold it, you two!" rang out a voice as two additional figures ran  
into the room. "Save your fighting for Tazz, the Invader."  
  
Looking at the video camera, Brainiac 5 waved. "The show's over.  
Sign off, the Legion has a mission."  
  
"But listen ..." protested Invisible Kid. "We promised a full hour's  
program. Brainy, think about the disappointed audience across the galaxy --"  
  
"I am thinking of them, all right," retorted Brainiac 5, "And mainly  
the people on Earth. There won't be anymore video programs to watch   
again ... ever ... unless the Legion handles a certain emergency without delay.  
Now, don't ask for details until the video is off. We don't want to cause a  
panic."  
  
Invisible Kid went to podium and announced that an emergency   
had come up and that the "second half" of their Meet would be shown at   
a later date.  
  
When the video camera was off, Invisible Kid faced Brainiac 5  
and Ferro Lad. "Out with it, Legionnaires. This must be a top priority  
emergency."  
  
Ferro Lad, his power turned off, extended an arm and brushed   
some red dust off his uniform. "It's top priority, all right," he said.  
  
Brainiac 5 then explained the situation. The other Legionnaires  
listened with widening eyes.  
  
"And so," Andrew said, "we've got to defeat Tazz, the Invader  
and -- well corny or not -- save the world."  
  
"Hmmm," said Lyle. "You told us he refused to tell why he wanted   
to destroy Earth. But just how is he going to do it? Any idea?"  
  
"That superelectromagnet of his must have something to do with  
it," Brainy answered. "But just how it could destroy the Earth is anybody's  
guess."  
  
The communicator on the desk in front of Invisible Kid buzzed.  
It was a message from the Legion Communications Room. Lyle pushed  
the button, "What, Tinya?"  
  
Everyone in the Council Room heard Phantom Girl's voice tell  
Invisible Kid: "A Doctor Thomm Polton of the Kirk Interstellar   
Observatory wants to talk to you, Lyle."  
  
"Put him through on the viewing screen, Tinya, thanks." A few  
seconds later, the main view screen in the Council Room was filled with  
the image of an older man with a gray beard. "Dr Polton, what can we  
do for you?" asked the Legion leader.  
  
"I thought you Legionnaires should hear this before I released it  
to the Earth authorities or to the public. An amazing celestial phenomenon  
has occurred ..."  
  
The scientist paused, as if still overwhelmed by what he had to  
say. "A giant comet has suddenly appeared from the remote regions   
beyond the solar system. It is racing toward Earth and gathering   
tremendous speed. If it strikes Earth ..."  
  
He took a breath and went on calmly -- too calmly: "Collision   
with the giant comet would cause worldwide earthquakes and destroy  
half the planet. And at its fantastic rate of acceleration, it will arrive within  
ten days."  
  
His voice changed to a bewildered huskiness. "The whole thing  
is against all cosmic chance. It upsets all the laws of astrophysics, all  
theories of galactic events. I know you will think I'm overimaginative, but  
its almost as if that comet were being -- well, being drawn toward Earth  
by some powerful force."  
  
"Thank you, doctor, for the warning." Brainiac 5 said.  
  
"Wait! There's more!" the scientist exclaimed. "We're seeing at  
least two other comets going off their projected courses. But they're not  
heading for Earth. We haven't calculated where they might hit yet."  
  
"Okay, Doc," said Invisible Kid. "We're on it." Lyle let out a  
long sigh and faced the others. "There you have it. Tazz's supermagnet  
must be pulling down that giant comet. That's the way he plans to destroy  
Earth."  
  
"So what are we waiting for?" demanded Colossal Boy. "We go  
to Mount Everst, defeat Tazz, wreck his magnet, and stop the comet.  
Simple as ABC."  
  
"Yes, except D through Z," warned Brainiac 5, "which will be  
all the unknown superscience tricks he may still have up his sleeve. It'll  
be tough, with a capital T."  
  
"Just the way we like it," said Invisible Kid, drawing himself  
up from his chair, his eyes smoldering. "The Legion has never been  
defeated -- and never will!"  
  
"Corny," said Sun Boy, "but true. Let's go."  
  
Invisible Kid stared at Sun Boy frostily. "I give the group  
decisions around here, Dirk. But since I can't think of anything better  
to say" -- he clapped Sun Boy on the shoulder -- "let's go!"  
  
Violet spoke up, "Shouldn't we get more help?"  
  
"We're the only ones here, Vi." Lyle punched the button on the  
communicator and ordered, "Tinya, transmit a call back for all Legionnaires.  
We're going on a mission to the Himalayas. You and Karate Kid stay put  
here until we come back or call for help."  
  
The six Legionnaires strode out of the Council Room and down  
a corridor then they went out a door which took them outside. Nearby,   
close to the yellow and red clubhouse, which looked like the inverted   
bottom stage of a rocket impaled into the ground, was the Legion's space-  
port. Here rested three Mark III Legion Cruisiers. These ships, which   
took off and landed vertically, were specially designed to transport the   
Legion anywhere on Earth or beyond.  
  
Within the craft, each Legionnaire went into their seats. Sun Boy   
sat at the pilot controls, with Colossal Boy as his co-pilot. Dirk Morgna  
looked at the computer readout of the automated check-out devices. "All  
systems go," he said. He programmed the proper trajectory into the ship's  
navigation system. Destination -- Mount Everest.  
  
Making sure everyone was ready, Sun Boy pushed the main engine  
button. With a roar, the fiery engine burst forth, shoving the craft vertically  
into the sky.  
  
"All systems go," said Colossal Boy. "Oxygen, green. Thrust ,   
nominal."  
  
"Yaw, pitch and roll errors negative," took up Sun Boy. "Ship  
going into proper pitch-over angle into level flight, at ninety miles altitude.  
We're on our way."  
  
Looking down through a big bottom-side window, they could   
see the broad sweep of the Earth's curvature below, and portions of the  
surface through banks of fleecy clouds.   
  
It wasn't long before Sun Boy warned everyone: "Five minutes to  
landing. What's our course of strategy, Lyle?"  
  
"I've been mulling it over," the Legion leader answered slowly. "It  
doesn't pay to reveal all our forces at once -- we should hold some in  
reserve. Tazz already has Ferro Lad's number with his rust-ray; so Violet,  
Brainy, Colossal Boy and I will confront our enemy first. Then, if  
reinforcements are needed, Sun Boy and Ferro Lad will join in.  
  
"Always robbing me of glory," grumbled Sun Boy. "What if you  
four don't need help?" He knocked his knuckles against his forehead as  
if chiding himself. "What am I worried about? Insect Girl, Elephant Boy,  
The Brain and a guy who turns himself invisible ... how can they win  
without help? So just call on ... " He looked at Violet up and down,  
... the hottest thing in the universe ..."   
  
She made a face like she just smelled something bad.  
  
"... And," he continued, "I'll save the day. You can help too, Rust  
Pot."  
  
Ferro Lad said nothing, wincing at the word "rust."  
  
Witheringly, Shrinking Violet spoke up, "You really think you're  
hot stuff, don't you, Dirk?"  
  
"Like I always say, babe -- if you got it, flaunt it."  
  
"Yeeech!" She replied.  
  
If the others, thought Brainiac 5 to himself, had met Tazz, they  
would not be bantering so light-heartedly. They would find out soon  
enough what they were up against ...  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	6. Mountaintop Battle

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 6 - MOUNTAINTOP BATTLE  
  
  
Re-entry came now as they slammed into the Earth's atmosphere.  
The bottom of the LSH Mark III spacecraft began to glow cherry-red.  
But the molybdenum-tantalum alloy skin of the ship could withstand any  
air-friction temperature as they moved downward toward the towering  
white-capped Himalayas. When aerodynamic control came back, at  
mere supersonic speed, Sun Boy skillfully maneuvered the spacecraft  
through cloud banks and mists in the mountain system to keep hidden  
from watching eyes on Mount Everest.  
  
A burst of rocket power and the ship righted itself vertically and  
it continued to drop toward the surface, much as the very first moon-  
lander fell to the surface of the moon almost a thousand years before.  
The ship landed gently just below the rim of Everest's peak.  
  
"Parka's, anyone?" asked Ferro Lad, pointing to the fur suits   
stashed in ceiling receptacles. "It's cold outside, well below zero."  
  
"I expect enough action," said Invisible Kid grimly, "to be plenty  
warm." The others nodded.  
  
"I have a miniature heater in my belt," explained Brainy.  
  
"Sun Boy and Ferro Lad will stay here as planned," said Lyle  
after they stepped out. "The other four of us will approach from four  
directions. Okay, let's go."  
  
With an unvoiced exchange of glances that said "Good luck,"   
Colossal Boy, Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5 and Shrinking Violet spread out  
a hundred yards apart and slowly advanced up toward the ramparts of  
the peak. They all shivered in the icy winds, but as Leginnaires the teen-  
agers were inured to hardships and discomforts that would incapcitate  
other people.  
  
Cautiously, they looked over the final ridge. The mighty magnet   
machine came into sight first, towering high and surrounded by its eerie  
nuclear-like glow. Then, as their sight came to eye level, they saw Tazz ...  
facing them with a mocking smile as he swung his gaze to each of them.  
  
He greeted them sneeringly, "Did you really think that you could  
sneak up on me unawares? My ultramonitor saw your craft approach and  
land. I presume you have come to play the same game the Masked One  
did. The game of Save the Earth, which you will lose."  
  
He waved at his monstrous machine.  
  
"You won't wreck my ultramagnet, which is pulling the giant comet  
into its proper collision course with Earth even as we speak."  
  
Even from yards away, they could see his frosty eyes flash  
defiantly.  
  
"Four against one, but I can easily hold you off. Your science  
pitted against mine is like an atom pitted against a star."  
  
"We'll see about that," said Invisible Kid, gratingly, and then he  
raised his voice to shout, "Get him!"  
  
Colossal Boy had already assumed a giant height of 25 feet, and  
he ran forward to pick up a huge boulder weighing at least a ton. Mighty  
muscles propelled it straight at Tazz, who turned to face the oncoming  
juggernaut without flinching.  
  
Incredibly, striking the force-field aura in front of him, the hard  
stone shattered into countless pieces.  
  
"Yes, we know you're shielded from the front," came Lyle's voice  
behind him. "But Colossal Boy's move was only to make you face that   
way, while I --"  
  
Having raced across the wind-swept rock as quick as he could,  
Invisible Kid was already within reach. In one head-long plunge, he hurled  
his body straight at Tazz's back, ready to send him off his feet with a knock-  
out blow.  
  
Klang!  
  
Though Tazz had not turned, Invisible Kid met an invisible shield   
and bounded back, nearly knocking out Lyle himself.  
  
Slowly turning, Tazz said softly, "After the Green One taught me  
that I was vulnerable from the rear, naturally I fixed up my force-field to  
curve all around me. I am now invulnerable from all sides."  
  
His hand went to his belt. "Now, let us see if you can survive my   
repertory of weapon rays."  
  
Lurid beams sprang forth -- purple, red, green, blue -- each   
carrying a different form of destruction. But Tazz's attention had been  
riveted on the Legion leader. He didn't see Brainiac 5 approach and  
activate his force-field belt. Brainy had adjusted the protection-field  
to extend toward Lyle as well. The Legion master mind's invention  
deflected all of Tazz's rays. Lyle turned invisible and flew into the air  
with the assistance of his Legion flight ring.  
  
Tazz was, in his way, astonished when Invisible Kid   
disappeared in front of his very eyes. "What manner of being is that?"  
said Tazz, startled.  
  
Lyle knew that his turning invisible would distract Tazz. Out of  
the corner of his eye, he had seen Colossal Boy lumbering toward the  
giant magnet. He had distracted Tazz from turning and noticing.  
  
Reaching the machine, Colossal Boy put his great arms around  
one of the steel-truss support legs and heaved mightily. Could he topple  
the gigantic contraption? Metal groaned as Gim grunted, straining every  
massive muscle.  
  
Tazz heard, and whirled. "Colossal Fool!" shouted Tazz, "My   
dis-beam will turn you into a puff of nothingless."  
  
He touched a button on his belt and ray sprang forth,   
disintergrating rock close to Colossal Boy.  
  
"My next shot," Tazz warned, "will get you ... Yeow!"  
  
The last was a pained yell as something jabbed into his eye before  
he pressed the dis-beam button. Something tiny flew before his face,  
buzzing angrily.  
  
"Some Earthly insect," he muttered. Then his eyes opened wide.  
"But it seems to have human form!" he gasped.  
  
"Meet Shrinking Violet,"shrilled a thin voice. "A member of the  
Legion of Super-Heroes. I have the ability, as you can see, of shrinking  
to insect size."  
  
"But my force-field," said Tazz in a puzzled tone. "How did you  
get past it?"  
  
"Simple," buzzed the tiny girl. "I suspected that it's only a half-  
shell, stretching down to the ground. But where the ground is uneven,  
there are small crevices under the edge of the shield. I slipped through  
one."  
  
She had been hovering before his face. Now she swooped down,  
calling back, "I stopped you from shooting your dis-beam at Big Gim.  
And now to keep you too busy to oppose the other Legionnaires ..."  
  
A series of howls came from the alien, and he began doing a  
wild dance as Violet struck him again and again in vital spots on his  
body, especially to the eyes.  
  
Seeing this, Invisible Kid reappeared and yelled: Dirk! Ferro!   
Violet is entertaining Tazz. This is our chance to wreck his ultramagnet.  
Come on."  
  
Sun Boy and Ferro Lad came charging, grinning at the cavorting  
figure of Tazz, trapped with the tiny girl jabbing him inside his own  
protective energy shell. Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 joined them, and  
they raced up to where Colossal Boy was still heaving away but unable  
to overturn the huge machine.  
  
"Tazz has only a flat shield above it," said Brainiac 5, pointing to  
where another meteor, drawn down by the magnet, banged off the force-  
field there. "He has no complete shell around it, as with himself. That  
means we can wreck the unshielded machine from down here."  
  
Ferro Lad with his power on, which gave him super-strength,  
went to another one of the steel-truss support legs opposite of Gim and  
began heaving as well.  
  
Sun Boy started doing his part when he joyfully said, "Watch what  
a heat blast can do." He held out his arms in front of him and a fiery ray of  
super-charged heat was released from his hands and struck directly into  
the heart of the machine. The supermagnet exploded violently, shattering  
wires and causing short-circuit sparks.  
  
Unable to help directly in the destruction, Brainiac 5 pointed out  
key sections of the machine for Sun Boy to aim for.  
  
"Keep heaving, guys," Invisible Kid called out to Ferro Lad and   
Colossal Boy. "The whole structure is weakening fast."  
  
With one last Herculean effort, the teen-mountain lifted one  
support leg clear of the ground. Then Ferro Lad did the same with  
the one he was working on. Then, as Sun Boy burned through a  
connecting cable, Colossal Boy yanked the entire leg away.  
  
"Timber!" yelled Invisible Kid, and they all scurried back, as  
the towering machine began to sway and slowly topple. It crashed full  
length with a resounding thud that shook the whole mountain. Electric  
discharges flashed through the wreckage.  
  
"I guess our little party is over," sang out Violet, flying down   
under the edge of Tazz's force-shell. "Thanks for the dance," she giggled.  
Rejoining the other Legionnaires, she said, "Good work, boys. No more  
supermagnetic force is pulling that giant comet toward Earth."  
  
"No, but it doesn't matter ... now," snarled Tazz, approaching and  
rubbing the bumps Shrinking Violet had raised on his face. "I neglected to  
inform you that my ultramagnet needed only ten more minutes of operation  
since you arrived, to pull the comet into an unalterable collision course   
with Earth, at top speed."  
  
He grinned devilishy. "And our battle took eleven minutes before  
you wrecked it. In other words, Legionnaires, you failed to stop the  
approaching Earth doom."  
  
The Legionnaires looked at each other, dismayed. Tazz had held  
the trump card after all.  
  
But just why are you here to destroy Earth?" queried Invisible Kid.  
  
"Yes," said Ferro Lad. "You boasted to me that you were Tazz, the  
Invader, and spoke of many worlds that fell to you. Why are you switching  
from invading to destruction of Earth?"  
  
"You may as well hear my story, since you can't stop me anyway,"  
answered Tazz, his frosty eyes mocking them. I am from your future, some  
one thousand years from now. Call it your 40th century. My home world,  
in that future time, was in the solar system of the star you call Vega. First,  
as a mastermind of warfare, I conquered my own planet and people. Then,  
building a space warfleet, I swept out and took over all of our solar system.  
But even that did not satisfy me."  
  
He waved an arm dramatically, as if to include the universe.  
  
"I organized an inter-galactic fleet of warships and drove out among  
the nearby stars. World after world fell before me and became part of my  
grand cosmic empire. At each planet it was ... how you say? Ah, veni, vidi,  
vici."  
  
"I came, I saw, I conquered," murmured Brainiac 5 for the benefit  
of the others.  
  
"Correct, Green One," Tazz said. He continued his story, "In time,  
spreading out from my corner of the Milky Way, I ruled half the galaxy --  
a total of ten thousand inhabited worlds."  
  
"Ten thousand worlds?" murmured Invisible Kid in awe. It was on  
a scale so vast the human mind could hardly comprehend it.  
  
"I was still young," replied Tazz, "and my ambition was no less than  
conquest of the entire galaxy with its twenty thousand inhabited planets --  
but something blocked my plans."  
  
"Aha! spoke up Sun Boy. "Let me guess, you ran into a world  
tougher than yours, with a warfleet you couldn't defeat, eh?"  
  
"Yes!" spat out Tazz, his face darkening. "This other world had  
a technology superior to my own. They had superscience weapons that  
decimated my fleet, crushed my power, and smashed my hard-won  
empire."  
  
"That world," whispered Brainiac 5, suddenly drawing in his breath  
... "was it called -- Earth?"  
  
The others startled, in blinding insight.  
  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	7. Four Earth Dooms

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 7 - Four Earth Dooms  
  
  
"That's right," said Tazz in an intense voice. "It was your own Earth  
of the 40th century, one thousand years from now, that did -- or will --  
smash my drive for galactic domination." He glared at them with infinite  
hatred. "You are the ancestors of the future people who are destined to  
be my stumbling block. It is the human race alone that could stand in my  
way."  
  
"So you have come back in time merely for revenge against us?"  
said Invisible Kid, shaking his head. "Because our far-future descendants  
defeated you, you've come to give us a bad time."  
  
"No," Tazz came back sharply. "I would hardly be that trivial in  
my aims. Don't you understand? If I destroy Earth of the 30th century,  
it will never exist in the 40th century. Its powerful warfleet and super-  
weapons won't be there to oppose me. So when I return to the future,  
my conquest of the galaxy will succeed, where it failed before."  
  
The Legionnaires stood stunned at the enormity of the concept.  
  
"But that's changing history," protested Lyle. "How can you tamper  
with inexorable fate that way? If Earth did exist in the future and did defeat  
you, how can that event be wiped out? Once a thing has happened, it   
can't ... well, it can't unhappen."  
  
Tazz sneered, as though he were talking with uneducated fools.  
"Of course your primitive minds know nothing of science to come, and  
future discoveries about branching time. Let me try to explain it ..."  
  
"That's where you're wrong, Tazz," Brainiac 5 interrupted. The  
villian had no way of knowing that Brainy was an expert in time travel  
and had built the Legion's Time Bubble.  
  
Brainy said, "I know quite a bit about the science and implications  
of time travel."  
  
Tazz ignored him and went on. "At any crossroads in history,  
such as the outcome of a war, two different acts of destiny can occur,  
naturally. If the war is won by one side, their 'real ' world goes on. The  
other outcome, where the war is lost, is merely a branch of destiny that  
never really occurs. Understand?"  
  
"An 'if' world," nodded Brainiac 5, "or a 'parallel' world."  
  
"But if you travel back in time," pursued Tazz, "and alter the out-  
come of that war, the so-called real world becomes the if world, while the   
if world then becomes the real one."  
  
"That's double-talk, you creep," piped up Sun Boy. "You're just  
juggling paradoxes around and coming up with zero. How can something  
that is already real suddenly change and become unreal?"  
  
Brainiac 5 answered the question before Tazz did, "By the great  
chrono-conversion equation that was formulated in the year 2875. It is  
similar to Einstein's famous equation of converting matter into energy, and  
vice versa. And just as matter and energy are interchangeable, so are the  
'real' and the 'parallel' worlds."  
  
Invisible Kid, who was a scientist in his own right, digested that  
staggering thought. "You mean that if you succeeded in destroying Earth  
and wiping out the human race, here in the 30th century, all the future  
events in which they took part will simply disappear out of history, as  
you knew it in the 40th century?"  
  
"Why not?" said Tazz blandly. "The parallel universe, in which Earth  
is destroyed before its prime, then becomes the real universe."  
  
Shrugging, he went on impatiently, "But it doesn't matter. Whether  
you understand or care to believe is no concern of mine. The truth is that  
by wiping out Earth today, I will insure myself becoming the emperor of the  
Milky Way galaxy in the 40th century."  
  
"Easier said than done, though," retorted the Legion leader. "A  
giant comet smashing into Earth might wreck most of civilization and  
annihilate many millions of the human race, but there will be survivors to  
carry on -- and to become strong again in the 40th century."  
  
"The giant comet," Tazz informed them in ominous tones, "is only  
the first of four world-doom catastrophes which I shall cause on Earth.  
All four superdisasters combined will make sure that not one human being  
remains alive on your world. Understand?"  
  
"Four dooms!" gasped Shrinking Violet. "You heartless beast!  
Willing to kill -- to murder -- billions of people! I should beat you until you  
cry for mercy!"  
  
Tazz winced and stepped back a pace, but Invisible Kid said,   
"Forget it, Vi. That wouldn't stop him. The question is" -- he turned to  
Tazz -- "what are the other three dooms you plan?"  
  
Tazz grinned maliciously, cunningly. "I would indeed be an idiot to  
tip my hand. And besides, it will be more agonizing for you Legionnaires  
to face unknown holocausts. However, I'll tell you this much. The other three  
worldwrecking forces I've planned will involve fire, water, and air. Guess the  
rest if you can. Now I will leave Mount Everest and waft myself elsewhere   
on Earth, to launch doom number two. Good-bye."  
  
He pressed a button on his belt and a plastic bubble materialized   
out of thin air and surrounded him. Lightly as a soap bubble, it then rose  
in the air and gathered speed.  
  
"Follow him, Violet," whispered Invisible Kid. Let us know where   
he goes next and what he's cooking up."  
  
"Right, Lyle," piped Violet, flying away with her flight ring after the  
receding plastic vehicle and the leering alien.  
  
"Well, we've got our work cut out for us, guys," said the Legion  
leader, looking at his four male companions grimly.  
  
"We save worlds every morning before breakfast," said Sun Boy  
flippantly, to hide the gnawing horror within him.  
  
"But this is even greater," added Colossal Boy thoughtfully. "Not  
only saving the world today but also saving the whole galaxy and ultimately  
the entire universe of the future."  
  
They stared solemnly at each other, and even Sun Boy couldn't  
think of a wisecrack for that.  
  
  
***  
  
  
Following the plastic bubble, Shrinking Violet expected a long  
journey ahead but, surprisingly, Tazz turned downward and landed in a  
valley. Stepping out, he unhooked a small communications device from  
his belt and spoke into it.  
  
"Attention, my faithful aides," he said casually, as if putting through  
a phone call. But Violet, overhearing, realized he was not merely calling  
someone millions or billions of miles away but a thousand years away.  
  
Tazz continued, "You sent me the ultramagnet, which did its work  
nobly. Now I want you to send the three other machines to the 30th  
century, launching three more Earth dooms simultaneously."  
  
He paused to unroll a map that had been folded in his belt, then  
resumed, "Send the Infrared Beamer to the Antarctic, on your map of  
ancient Earth, at the spot marked X. Have the Vulcan Machine   
materialize on that marked island in the South Pacific."  
  
Violet wondered, suddenly, why a villian should be using an  
Earthly language instead of his own native tongue. But then realized,  
listening carefully, that there was no voice at all. He was, in reality,  
beaming telepathic waves into his future-communication device.  
Thought words, of course, were universal, understood by any intelligent  
mind. That was why Violet could eavesdrop on Tazz.  
  
"Last," Tazz was saying, "transport the Storm Satellite Launcher  
to the Sahara Desert location marked on your map."  
  
Grim curiosity tantalized the insect-sized girl.  
  
Infrared Beamer ... Vulcan Machine ... Storm Satellite!  
  
How would those three superscience devices from the future  
create havoc on Earth? Would it be something even more devastating  
than the ultramagnet pulling down a giant comet to strike Earth?  
  
Sitting inside a buttercup flower near Tazz, Violet waited to  
hear more. "As you know," came from the villian, "the Infrared Beamer  
will be used to --"  
  
But his words were drowned out by a large buzz and a huge  
bumblebee came soaring straight toward the flower, evidently seeking its  
sweet nectar. Violet didn't want to tangle with an insect much bigger than  
she was and flew away to sit on the next flower. But the angry bumblebee  
zoomed after her, obviously considering this patch of blossoms his private  
territory, from which to drive out all other poaching creatures.  
  
As the buzzing bully put on speed in chasing her, Violet realized  
she couldn't escape his enormous stinger, which would sooner or later  
jab her through and through like a spear.  
  
"I'll fix you," she thought, willing herself to grow. Seconds later,  
back to normal size, she swung the flat of her hand and knocked the  
surprised bumblebee back into some prickly weeds. She smiled  
triumphantly.  
  
But that smile was short-lived when she suddenly noticed two  
frosty blue eyes turning her way, startled at the abrupt appearance of  
a full-sized teenage girl out of thin air. She was now exposed to Tazz!  
  
"The female Legionnaire," he hissed. "How much have you  
heard? Well, you won't hear any more ..." He was already pressing  
his belt-button to release a killing ray.  
  
Desperately Violet threw herself full length among tall weeds.  
Tazz raked the green patch with his ray, converting it into blackened   
ashes. But no human body was there, only a tiny insect that had flew  
away unnoticed.  
  
"Whew," thought Violet, "I shrank down again just in time. I'd  
better not hang around here any more. Tazz will be on watch for any  
insect coming near him. I'll make my way back to the clubhouse and  
report what I did hear."  
  
But it was a long way back to Metropolis for a pseudo-insect.  
Violet flew high in the air and looked in all directions.  
  
"Ah, a spaceport to the south, probably in what was called  
northern India. I'll hitch a ride there.  
  
And so it was that a transport-liner carried a tiny stowaway  
to Paris. From there, Violet transferred to another transport bound   
for Metropolis. The entire journey took a little over three hours in the   
30th century.  
  
"Being small certainly has its advantages," she said to herself. "No  
fare to pay, and all kinds of seats -- on the ceiling."  
  
  
***  
  
  
At the Legion clubhouse, many more Legionnaires had responded  
to the call back and were awaiting word back from Violet impatiently.  
  
"If she doesn't come back ..." groaned Colossal Boy for the tenth  
time, but they all forgave him. Suddenly, all of them turned in unison, as  
Violet ran into the room.  
  
"Miss me?" she asked with a smile.  
  
The blonde-haired Saturn Girl, wearing her red-and-white tunic with  
the planet Saturn emblazoned on it, with red pants and white boots, was all   
no-nonsense. She asked immediately, "Did you overhear any plans of Tazz,   
the Invader?"  
  
"Yes, some," Violet answered, and she recited her story. When she   
was through, Invisible Kid banged his fist against the wall, causing a crack.  
  
"Easy, leader man," admonished Star Boy. "Our good benefactor  
R.J. Brande pays for the repairs. Go punch Sun Boy if you have to let off   
steam."  
  
"Oh, thanks," grunted Sun Boy. "That won't cost Mr. Brande  
anything -- it'll probably just cost me a handful of loose teeth." He   
glowered at the brown-haired Star Boy in his purple costume with   
black trunks and yellow gloves, boots and band around his waist. His   
uniform was completed with a long white cape and a large white star   
on his chest.   
  
Sun Boy then looked at Invisible Kid, "What's eating you?"  
  
"It's just not knowing Tazz's full plot," explained Lyle. "All we  
know is that earth disasters involving water, fire, and air will occur. But  
how will these three machines he's ... uh ... importing from the future do  
it?"  
  
"Worse yet," spoke up Ferro Lad, "we only know vaguely where  
each machine will operate -- in the Antarctic, in the South Seas, and in  
the Sahara. All of those are big places if you don't know the exact spot."  
  
"And for that reason," said Saturn Girl, "we can't turn this mission  
over to the military or the Science Police. You can't send them halfway  
across the world to an indefinite place. This calls for specialized skills and  
training. Therefore, it's a mission for the Legion only."  
  
"You're right, Imra," agreed Colossal Boy. He turned to Invisible  
Kid, "But which of the three Earth menaces do we tackle first?"  
  
"That brings up the most significant thing," said Brainiac 5 thought-  
fully: "that Tazz, according to Shrinking Violet, will launch his other three  
earth-wreckers simultaneously."  
  
"Right," nodded Invisible Kid. "And that means we have to split  
up and try to stop all three at the same time, as soon as possible."   
  
He looked at the group of Legionnaires before him. "Let's see, we'll pair  
off like this: Saturn Girl, Element Lad, Matter-Eater Lad, Ultra Boy and  
Bouncing Boy to the Antarctic. Violet, Colossal Boy, Sun Boy, Brainy,  
Ferro Lad and myself to the South Seas. And ... Phantom Girl, Dream  
Girl, Star Boy, Karate Kid and Light Lass will go to the Sahara. Duo  
Damsel and the Princess will stay with the clubhouse."  
  
"I'd really like to go," piped up a disappointed Princess Projectra.  
Projectra, the Princess from the planet Orando, had short white hair and  
was dressed in a very revealing, low-cut, royal blue bodysuit with shorts   
that left little to the imagination. The costume was completed with a long  
red cape that had a high, upturned collar, high, red boots and long white  
gloves that went up to her elbows.  
  
The Princess had the ability to create very realistic illusions.  
  
Invisible Kid tried to explain to her, "I know, Princess, but we  
really need someone to stay here in case Superboy, Mon-El and a  
couple of the others make it back here. Someone has to explain to  
them what's happening."  
  
Projectra pouted by nodded in understanding.  
  
"We'll take care of the clubhouse, Lyle," Duo Damsel acknowledged.  
  
Most of the males in the Legion would've agreed that the 18-year-  
old, long, brown-haired Luornu Durgo was one of the -- if not the -- most   
attractive girls in the Legion. She wore a purple mini-dress uniform and had   
legs that wouldn't quit. She also wore a burnt-orange cape, with a wide-belt   
of the same color, black boots, and long white gloves.  
  
Luornu was born on Carggg, a triple-sunned world of triplicating   
people. Before becoming a Legionnaire, she split into three and   
accompanied each of the founding Legionnaires individually to their   
clubhouse, revealing her triplicate existence. She was, along with Phantom   
Girl, one of the first non-founding members of the Legion, calling herself   
Triplicate Girl. It was Brainiac 5's renegade computer, Computo, that killed   
one of Luornu's bodies and she renamed herself Duo Damsel.  
  
"Since time is of the essence," Invisible Kid went on. "We'll use  
the Mark III Legion cruisers. We all better be in top condition for this  
most important mission. We'll get going in six hours. That gives us all  
time for some sleep, a shower, a hot meal and whatever."  
  
Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl looked at one another on the word  
"whatever."  
  
Lyle paused, his eyes going bleak.  
  
"The giant comet that was pulled toward Earth will arrive in ten  
days, Tazz revealed. His other three Earth dooms must be timed to occur,  
or reach their peak, at that same date. In short, if we fail, the end of the  
world will come before this month is over."  
  
They all winced.  
  
"The deadline of doom," murmured Shrinking Violet, "is what we  
Legionnaires are racing against this time."  
  
"And not only doom for 30th century Earth," Brainiac 5 reminded  
them, "but for all the thousands of galactic worlds in the future. This is  
literally a battle for the universe."  
  
"If we fail," added Light Lass with a tremor in her voice, "we lose  
the world and Tazz wins the universe."  
  
"It'll serve him right," drawled Sun Boy. "If all the people on those  
twenty thousand other worlds are ornery jackasses like humans on Earth,  
then poor Tazz will have some mess to rule over. I'd let him get away with  
it except for one thing ..."  
  
He paused to strike a pose. "I don't want history to be robbed of  
my lifelong exploits and fabulous feats of heroism. But how can I be a   
hero to millions of screaming girls if Earth ends this month? So, between  
Tazz and me, Tazz has to go. I have spoken."  
  
A lot of giggles and snorting was heard in the room.  
  
"What?" The astonished Dirk Morgna glared at his fellow  
Legionnaires. "You think I'm kidding? I've never been more serious in  
my life."  
  
"You know," muttered Phantom Girl to Ultra Boy, "sometimes I  
don't know if that guy is ribbing us, or not."  
  
  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	8. Ice Menace

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 8 - ICE MENACE  
  
  
It was night when a red spacecraft rocketed southward, reeling off  
thousands of miles and continuing past the southern tip of South America  
over the vast watery wastes at the bottom of the world. Only one hour later,  
night gave way to day as they passed into the months-long polar daytime.  
  
Ramparts of glistening ice rose on the horizon, spreading to the right  
and left as far as the eye could see. The White Continent ... Icebox of the  
World ... Frozen Hell ... it had been called many things in the past by hard-  
bitten explorers.  
  
An enormous ice cap covered the land. Uninhabited for countless  
ages, Antarctica in the 30th century still only had a population of a few  
thouand permanent residents in scientific outposts.  
  
"Metropolis has a population density of 758 people per square   
mile," commented Saturn Girl, "while Antarctica has 1,200 square miles  
per person. How are we ever going to find one small being, Tazz, in that  
immensity?"  
  
At the pilot controls, Ultra Boy angled the Legion Mark III space-  
craft down. Ultra Boy was Jo Nah from the planet Rimbor. Rimbor was a   
place where energy beasts gathered, and many Rimborian youths would   
take a spacecraft out to play among them. When Jo did this once, he ended   
up being swallowed by an Ultra-Energy Beast. This was fortunate for Jo,   
since rather than kill him, he absorbed some of its energy. He soon learned   
that he was able to focus the ultra-energy on certain parts of his body,   
giving him super-strength or speed when its in his muscles, penetra-vision   
or flash vision when it's in his eyes, and an invulnerable force-field when   
it's in his skin. But he can only use one power at a time. For example, if   
he's using his super strength, he is vulnerable.  
  
His uniform was one of the more colorful ones in the Legion.  
A bright red tunic top with a green symbol on his chest, a wide yellow  
belt around his waist and dark blue trunks with green tights on his legs.  
His boots were black with red on top.  
  
"A good question," the brown-haired Ultra Boy admitted to Saturn  
Girl. "However, we can quickly search in all directions from the air with  
help from our Flight Rings, of course. So, that's why I'm landing us in the  
center of the continent."  
  
"That's about the coldest spot, too," said Tenzil Kem of Bismoll,  
who was otherwise known by the unusual code-name of Matter-Eater Lad.  
Tenzil shivered as he drew on a Parka over his mostly green with yellow   
and black top. He wore yellow tights on his legs with green boots.  
  
"For us," he continued, "this is going to be Shiverville."  
  
Matter-Eater Lad had the power to eat just about anything in all forms.  
Tenzil's power is common to all natives of his home planet Bismoll. ME Lad  
was a favorite among his Legion teammates because of his engaging   
personality, good sense of humor, and underrated unarmed combat skills.  
  
"Keep talking and you won't freeze," said Saturn Girl soothingly.  
"I estimate the hot air you produce in one hour could heat a city."  
  
"Don't bug me, Blondie," retorted Matter-Eater Lad.  
  
With a roar of the braking rockets at the nose, the spaceship landed  
smoothly in a snowfield. A few minutes later, the five Legionnaires, Saturn  
Girl, Ultra Boy, Matter-Eater Lad, Element Lad and Bouncing Boy,   
disembarked and stepped out into the icy blast.  
  
Bouncing Boy said, "Before we came out here, I looked at the  
thermometer in the ship and it said only forty-seven degrees below zero.  
A comparatively balmy day for the Antarctic."  
  
"Anybody who calls that balmy is balmy," said ME Lad. "Let's not  
just stand here and freeze by inches. Let's get going."  
  
Bouncing Boy smiled as he shivered in his parka. Bouncing Boy's  
real name was Chuck Taine and he had the ability to inflate his body and   
bounce like a ball. Chuck gained his power when he accidently drank a   
scientist's super-plastic fluid. Under the parka, he wore his dark blue tunic  
with a stiff white collar and white band around his arms and around his  
waist. His pants were black.  
  
As agreed on before, the Legionnaires took off high into the  
frigid air with their Flight Rings.  
  
"Keep your eyes peeled in all directions," said Ultra Boy. "If the  
Infrared Beamer, whatever it is, is anywhere near the size of the ultra-  
magnet on Mounter Everest, we ought to spot it miles away."  
  
But they saw nothing, though they swung in ever-widening circles  
that gradually covered large areas in the interior of the ice-locked continent.  
  
"As bare as a cupboard," Bouncing Boy grunted between cold blue  
lips.  
  
They swung on a straightaway. On their communication devices,  
the Legionnaires heard Ultra boy say, "I have a hunch that Tazz may be  
operating along the coast instead of the interior." Upon reaching the shore-  
line of sheer icy cliffs towering a mile high in places, the five teenagers swung  
to follow the edge bordering the cold seas. They passed high over several  
scientific outposts, immediately recognizable by their quonset huts or low   
metal barracks.  
  
After skirting Antarctica's rim for hundreds of miles, Ultra Boy   
turned sympathetically toward his teammates, most of their skin was  
frosted, with tiny icicles hanging from the hoods over their eyes. The cold  
didn't bother him because he had his invulnerability turned on.  
  
He talked to his teammates over the Legion communicator: "The   
cold is not bothering me, but you guys are exposed to the frigid winds.  
Want to land and build a fire to warm up?"  
  
"N-no, I f-f-feel gr-great," lied Saturn Girl through chattering  
teeth. "Some of the members s-say I'm c-c-cold-blooded anyway so  
th-this is my n-natural element. Let-let's keep g-going, Jo. I'm t-t-t-tough."  
  
Occasionally they passed a penguin flock, strutting comically. At  
times skua gulls flapped passed. No other animal was seen, for even   
Arctic fox and polar bear would succumb in this bitter land where  
temperatures could at times plunge to 130 degrees below zero. Where  
bare, windswept mountain peaks rose above the monotonous whiteness,  
straggling green lichens and mosses grew, and a few hardy insects were   
known to survive on that food.  
  
Looking down, Matter-Eater Lad suddenly saw a strange thing.  
"Hey, guys, look! Tractor tread marks, but look how big!"  
  
The dark-haired Bouncing Boy gave a long low whistle as he   
squinted. "The tracks are a hundred feet wide. What kind of icemobile  
could be that big?"  
  
They saw the answer soon enough, following the trail over the  
horizon. There moving along in strange silence was a tractor-tread "tank"  
as big as a warehouse. On top was a mast surmounted by a huge search-  
light -- from which shone forth no light at all. Yet beyond at the coast,  
the ice cliffs were melting into a Niagara of water that cascaded boilingly  
down to the Antarctic sea.  
  
Saturn Girl flipped open another communication device and  
activated a Telstar satellite and called the Legion clubhouse. "Lu? We   
located the Infrared Beamer. We'll try to sabotage it. I'll call back and  
let you know if we succeeded."  
  
"Infrared rays are heat-beams, of course," said Element Lad.   
"Tazz is using that gizmo to melt the edges of the ice cap, but why? If  
he wipes out a few scientific camps on the way, how would that be an  
Earth-doom gimmick?"  
  
"One way to find out is to land," said Saturn Girl, swooping   
down. "And I mean on the machine itself," she added.  
  
Imra had seen the plastic bubble "pilot's room" at the front end  
of the Cyclopean tank. Within it sat Tazz himself, manipulating a complex  
electronic control board. He seemed too preoccupied to notice the  
five flying figures that landed feet-first nearby on the hull.  
  
"Let's take a quick potshot at him right off," muttered Matter-Eater  
Lad."  
  
"Right," agreed Ultra Boy. "Maybe we can surprise him and blast  
him before he knows what happened." Jo let loose with his flash vision,   
that was similar to Superboy's heat vision. The flash rays from Ultra Boy's  
eyes reached the plastic bubble, creating a pyrotechnical display that hurt  
the other Legionnaires eyes. But when the smoke cleared, nothing had  
changed.  
  
"Not even a scratch on his plastic bubble," cursed Matter-Eater   
Lad. "Not an atom knocked off."  
  
And now Tazz was staring out at them with a mocking leer. His  
amplified voice came from a speaker above the bubble.  
  
"Hello!" I expected Legionnaires here sooner or later. To satisfy  
your natural curisoity, this Infrared Beamer was constructed on my home  
planet by my cohorts, using 40th century science technology, then it was  
tele-transported across the time barrier in the wink of an eye to 30th  
century Earth."  
  
"What is your aim with this thing?" demanded Ultra Boy. "Why   
melt ice here? Or are you going to make ice cubes for a dinosaur-sized  
cocktail? If this is a menace to Earth, I don't get it."  
  
"Then harken, anthropoid throwback," returned Tazz bitingly. "To  
some Antarctic statistics, the south-polar ice cap holds ninety percent of  
the frozen water on Earth, a total of eleven million cubic miles. If all that  
were melted to flood into the swollen oceans of Earth, it would raise the  
general water level six hundred feet."  
  
The five Legionnaires gasped in unison.  
  
"This would drown seventy-five percent of Earth's major seaports  
under a new sea level," Tazz recited, "and would flood inland for a   
thousand miles in many non-mountainous areas. The dry-land area  
of Earth would be reduced to only the highlands and mountain chains,  
about one-tenth of the present land area."  
  
Tazz grinned mirthlessly at them. "Needless to say, at least half  
the human race would drown, and the rest would starve, with all farm-  
lands sunken underwater."  
  
Saturn Girl controlled her shuddering nerves. "All well and good,  
but it will take you a hundred years to melt all the ice down by circling   
the Antarctic coast time after time."  
  
"True," agreed the villianous invader from the future. "But under-  
neath this Infrared Beamer is a projector radiating a 'heat current' -- I  
can explain it in no simpler terms -- that is pouring all through the ice and  
building up its charge. When it reaches its peak, enough heat will be   
stored to melt the entire ice cap, releasing trillions of gallons of newly  
formed water into the ocean system of Earth."  
  
"That would also create a gigantic tidal wave," gasped Bouncing  
Boy.  
  
"Precisely," gloated Tazz. "I've thought of everything."  
  
"Except one thing," barked Saturn Girl. "That five Legionnaires will  
wreck your giant water-wagon, one way or another ... starting now!"  
  
"You will never have the chance," Tazz came back coldly, "for you  
will be wiped out ... now!"  
  
"Get behind me," yelled Ultra Boy tensely to his teammates. "I'm  
sure that I'm impervious to any of his ray-forces."  
  
"Except one, Red And Green One," Tazz said confidently. "The  
dis-ray will take care of you." And touching his belt buttons, Tazz shot  
forth the same ray he did on Mount Everest.  
  
Ultra Boy did not retreat, with the other Legionnaires huddled  
behind him. He took the full brunt of the droning ray -- and nothing  
happened.  
  
"You'll notice," said Jo Nah evenly, "that I am invulnerable."  
  
"Indeed," came Tazz's microphonic voice in grudging admiration.  
"Well, no matter. If I cannot destroy you, neither can you bother me within  
my impentrable Infrared Beamer machine."  
  
"We'll see about that, you overconfident creep," scoffed Element  
Lad. E-Lad as he was sometimes known, was Jan Arrah from the planet  
Trom. He ripped off his parka to expose his pink-and-white costime with  
a large black letter "E" on his chest. The blond-haired 16-year-old told  
Bouncing Boy and Matter-Eater Lad, "Throw some snowballs at the  
bubble. I'll turn them into energized radioactive fluoric acid that can eat  
through glass or stone."  
  
The snowballs landed on top of the machine with a wet thud, and  
Element Lad held out his arms and changed the H2O in the snow into a  
large stain of acid. A bubbling hiss arose, but as the moments passed the  
fumes danced away impotently.  
  
"All it did was clean the dirt off the metal," said Jan, shaking his  
head.  
  
"What kind of superalloy is that?" growled Saturn Girl, stunned.  
"But we've got to get inside and sabotage that machine. I'll try to reach  
his mind and stop him!"  
  
Saturn Girl concentrated, attempting to reach into the alien's mind  
and order him to stop and surrender. A moment later, a terrifed look came  
upon Imra's face. A look of total disbelief and shock. "There's nothing there!  
I don't feel or read anything from his mind! How is that possible?"  
  
Ultra Boy's face also fell, while a string of curses came from his  
lips. His fury was not lightened by the mocking, amplified voice of Tazz  
from his plastic bubble: "Why waste your impressive powers,   
Legionnaires?" My machine is coated with a layer of neutronium, a  
metal made of densely packed neutrons and ten times harder than  
mere diamond. It won't even be invented for another seven hundred  
years," he laughed. "You are back in the Stone Age compared to me.  
You Legionnaires are pitiful."  
  
"That clown from the outer cosmos doesn't know it," rasped  
Matter-Eater Lad, "but his deadliest weapons are those cornball cliches.  
If people heard enough of them, the human race would commit mass  
suicide."  
  
"My turn," said Ultra Boy, flying away from the mightly machine.  
"See that glacier ahead? Tazz is going to skirt close to one side of it ...  
and I've got ideas. You guys stay here, this is a one-man job."  
  
Ultra Boy soared high above the gigantic glacier, beside which  
even Tazz's great machine was a tiny mite.  
  
"Here goes," he muttered. Once again he used his flash vision on  
the glistening glacier. Giant cracks appeared at the top and spread fanwise  
down the sides. Awesomely, in majestic slow motion, the colossal chunk  
of ice split with a thunderclap, collapsing into a landslide of pieces bigger  
than houses.  
  
Countless megatons of the crystalline debris crushed down   
squarely on top of the Infrared Beamer as it churned past until it was  
buried from sight.  
  
Circling in the air, Ultra Boy held his breath and listened. Not a  
sound came from under the ice heap. "I think you hit the jackpot," came  
Matter-Eater Lad's thin shout from the distance. "You put Tazz on ice --  
for good!"  
  
RrrrRRRR ...  
  
The silence was broken by the sound of tractor treads grinding  
powerfully. Ice chunks were hurled aside as the 40th century tank came  
crawling out from under the broken glacier.  
  
"I -- I don't believe it," gasped Bouncing Boy, in devastating  
disappointment. "Not even a dent or a scratch."  
  
A derisive chuckle, amplified into stentorian volume, came   
rolling from the machine. "Was there something in my way?"  
  
But now the villian's voice turned ugly. "I see I'll have to eliminate  
you five. You annoy me, like mosquitoes."  
  
The huge machine suddenly wheeled around and headed   
straight for a small figure standing unprotected in the snowfield.  
The huge searchlight on top of the tank turned and aimed for ...  
  
"Tenzil!" screeched Element Lad in horror.  
  
"Great balls o' fire!" choked Matter-Eater Lad, rooted to the  
spot as the searchlight was aimed right at him. "Tazz is going to try to  
cook my goose!"  
  
ME Lad broke from his paralysis of fear and began running,  
futiley. Flying away wouldn't had helped because the Infrared beam  
would still probably get him. Tenzil looked for a place to go, anywhere.  
But there was nowhere to hide, no cover.  
  
Like a comet, Ultra Boy was streaking down from the sky,  
piling all the speed he could muster. But he had a longer way to go  
than the heat-beam from the machine, to reach Matter-Eater Lad.  
  
Death flew alongside Ultra Boy. Which of them would reach  
Tenzil first?  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	9. Sunken Sabotage

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 9 - SUNKEN SABOTAGE  
  
  
Meanwhile, Sun Boy was at the helm of another Mark III Legion  
cruiser spaceship that was moving away from a South Pacific island. Dirk,   
Lyle, Brainy, and Andrew had left Colossal Boy and Shrinking Violet on   
a centrally located island, where their part of the search for the third Earth   
doom would begin. The six Legionnaires in this group had planned to split   
into three teams of two each so that they could cover as many South Pacific   
islands as possible.  
  
As the speck of the Legion cruiser disappeared in the blue skies,  
Violet turned to Colossal Boy. "What a search we've got ahead of us,  
Big Gim! There are hundreds of islands, small and large, in this group,  
alone. On which one is Tazz, the Invader operating?"  
  
"He's probably not even here yet," Colossal Boy answered.  
"Remember that on our flight here, we heard Imra telling how they had  
found Tazz there with his Infrared Beamer. So he can hardly be here  
with his Vulcan Machine."  
  
"Then that means we have to wait for him," said the girl happily.  
"In that case, Big Boy," her arms encircled him, "why don't we think of  
something to do while we wait?"  
  
Her lips drew close to his temptingly. But his lips began to move  
upward, out of reach.  
  
"Oh, you spoiler!" she pouted. "Why did you shoot up to ten-feet  
and frustrate me?"  
  
"Because this isn't the time and place for the Romeo and Juliet  
bit," retorted the giant. "After all, we're on Legion business."  
  
"Oh, fine!" said the disappointed girl. "You and your sense of  
duty! Here we are alone on a desert isle -- well, a tropical isle -- and  
what's on your mind? Anything but romantic thoughts. Sometimes I  
could kick you, Gim Allon."  
  
"You couldn't reach that high," said Colossal Boy with a grin.  
Then he became serious. "Listen, Vi, it's possible that Tazz came here  
first before going to Antarctica, and left the Vulcan Machine operating  
under automatic or remote control. So our hunt should begin immediately.  
That's why there's no time for moonlight and roses."  
  
"Okay," sighed the girl. "What's the plan?"  
  
"All we can really do is search the islands one by one from the air,"  
he told her.  
  
They flew side by side looking for any kind of a large machine.   
They circled over the small atoll, finding it barren of any human habitation   
or any man-made structure.  
  
"We drew a blank here," said Colossal Boy. "On to the next  
island ... and the next ..."  
  
They lost count of the tropical isles they visited, some inhabited  
by people, some thriving with modern buildings, but none of them   
harboring the slightest sign of an alien machine at work.  
  
A little while later, they were flying over the next island. They  
looked down into a crater. "Many of these islands are volcanic in origin,"  
he pointed out to Violet. "Very few are live volcanoes, however. This  
one is deader than a doornail ..."  
  
BLAMMMM!  
  
At that moment, with a deafening blast, the supposedly dead  
volcano split open and erupted flame and smoke.  
  
"Quick!" gasped Colossal Boy. "Fly higher."  
  
Gaining altitude, they escaped the molten lava discharge that now  
scorched through the air and showered the surrounding waters with fiery  
sparks.  
  
Colossal Boy heard another blast sound to the north. "Another  
volcano erupting," he said, and then stared incredulously. One after   
another, a string of volcanic islands stretching into the distance blew  
their tops.  
  
"Great heavens!" cried Violet. "It's as if a string of firecrackers  
were being set off."  
  
"Right," yelled back Gim above the thunderous din. "And set  
off by ... Tazz, the Invader!"  
  
"What?"  
  
"The other three dooms, he said, would involve water, air and  
fire. Well, if this isn't 'fire' I'll eat it." He snapped his fingers. "Idiots that's  
what we are. The clue was right in front of our noses all the time. Violet,  
where does the name Vulcan come from?"  
  
"I'm no expert on Earth mythology but I think he was a Greek  
underground god ... Ah, I get what you're driving at. Tazz and his Vulcan  
Machine must be down below."  
  
"Right," said Colossal Boy again. "And that first volcanic island  
that erupted may mark where he's operating. Let's go. We've got to take  
a chance and run through the fiery hail of the eruption, down to the island  
itself."  
  
As they flew downward, great globs of molten lava sailed by,  
along with a blast of heated air.  
  
"We'll be cooked alive by the time we get there," gasped Violet,  
her skin red from heat. "Maybe we haven't got a chance. Maybe we  
should call for help."  
  
"Keep going!" snapped Colossal Boy.  
  
And so, somewhat the worse for wear, they gained the sanctuary  
of the island's jungle, at a spot where no forest fire had yet started, and  
where no rivers of molten lava had flowed.  
  
"Down there," pointed Colossal Boy, "is a cave. It all adds up that  
Tazz is here, underground."  
  
Violet pulled out her Legion communications device. There was   
a beep and then she said into it, "Brainy? Can you get a fix on our   
coordinates? No, I don't know the name of this damn island! You  
have us now? Well, Gim thinks that Tazz is down in some cave here.  
We're going to go in. Can you guys get here and lend us a hand?"  
Okay, thanks, bye!"  
  
She looked at Gim. "Brainy said they're on their way."  
  
"Let's go," he replied.  
  
They were thankful for the dim coolness of the cave and the out-  
side thunders of the volcanic barrage were muted as they went deeper.  
When the outside sounds were nearly inaudible, Violet stopped to  
listen carefully ... Colossal Boy heard it too.  
  
Ahead of them sounded a deep low rumble. "It sounds like a  
machine all right, a big one," said Colossal Boy excitedly. "Let's explore  
the cave system further."  
  
Gim Allon took Violet's hand and trotted along the winding  
passageways that linked a maze of natural caves under the island.  
  
The rumble grew louder, and became a low roar. The tunnels  
widened out now, and they eventually stepped into a huge central cavern  
which the sound reverberated. At first, in the dim underground lighting,   
they could see nothing except a vague hulking shape.  
  
Then it took form as a pattern of machined parts -- huge pipes,  
an enormous pump, a bulging chamber that glowed with a fire, and  
what looked like a computer system controlling it all.  
  
"The Vulcan Machine," breathed Violet. She clutched Allon's  
arm in sudden alarm. "Look ... handling the controls ..."  
  
"Tazz?" muttered Gim. "This is mighty peculiar. How could  
Saturn Girl report him in Antarctica, if he's here?"  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	10. Doom Machine

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 10 - DOOM MACHINE  
  
  
Yet Tazz was still in Antarctica! And still directing his monstrous  
tractor tank toward the fleeing figure of Matter-Eater Lad, dashing madly  
but hopelessly across the smooth snowfields with no slightest haven in sight.  
  
And Ultra Boy, diving at meteoric speed, had no chance to reach  
his doomed companion.  
  
But Jo did see another figure running toward Tenzil and ripping  
his parka off -- Bouncing Boy!  
  
Evidently Tazz thought it would be a waste of the Infrared   
Beamer's energy to merely shoot at ME Lad. Or perhaps he thought  
it would be more fun if he just ran Tenzil over, crushing him under the  
giant treads of the tank.  
  
Bouncing Boy was hoping that Tazz was planning on the latter.  
Just as the rolling machine caught up to Tenzil, Bouncing Boy inflated  
himself, and angled off the Infrared Beamer at incredible speed and  
hit Matter-Eater Lad, sending him flying away from the machine. Tenzil  
felt as if he had been hit by a 300 pound football lineman, but that had  
to feel bettter than being underneath those treads.  
  
Ultra Boy came swooping down in front of Tazz's doom  
machine and grabbed one of the enormous spiked treads to stop  
the movement of the Infrared Beamer.  
  
He yelled to ME Lad and Bouncing Boy, "You guys get out of  
here, I'll slow this thing down!"  
  
Matter-Eater Lad and Bouncing Boy immediately flew away,  
keeping out of sight of the machine's huge searchlight beamer. Moments  
later, seeing that his buddies were safely out of the way, Ultra Boy let  
go and flew off after them.  
  
Some distance away from Tazz, the three Legionnaires who   
just cheated death were joined by Saturn Girl and Element Lad for an   
impromptu strategy meeting.  
  
Saturn Girl said to Matter-Eater Lad, "I estimate that it was  
just three-tenths of second before there was contact between you   
and the treads."  
  
"That was a close shave," said Bouncing Boy with only the  
slightest tremor in his voice betraying how shaken up he was.  
  
Matter-Eater Lad took a deep breath. "Sorry, Blondie, for   
gypping you out of collecting my insurance."  
  
"What insurance?" retorted Imra. "You know quite well no  
insurance company would be idiotic enough to insure any of us.  
Legionnaires live the most dangerous lives in the universe. Even  
Lloyds of London, who have been in business for more than a  
thousand years, refused."  
  
Saturn Girl was just chatting to allow Tenzil to regain his  
shattered composure. It was not easy for a young man to be snatched  
from the jaws of death by a split hairline of time.  
  
"Thanks for the assist, Big Guy," ME Lad said to Bouncing Boy  
with a smile. His face then turned into a frown as he got serious. "We've  
got to get that outer-space thug now, he's a menace."  
  
"You think?" Imra replied with sarcascm.  
  
Ultra Boy piped up, "You know? Maybe we've been approaching  
this thing the wrong way."  
  
"What do you mean, Jo?" asked Element Lad.  
  
"Ever hear of the old soft underbelly deal?" Ultra Boy replied.  
  
Bouncing Boy started to say, "You mean ... ?"  
  
"Yeah. While I was holding back that machine so Tenzil and  
Chuck could get away, I looked back and saw that where the drive-  
shaft for the treads extends up inside to the engines, it occurred to me  
that the bottom may not be as well protected as the compartment where  
Tazz sits.   
  
Saturn Girl asked, "You mean if we attack the machine rather than  
Tazz, we may be able to stop him?"  
  
"Yeah. We already know that if we dump tons of ice on the machine  
nothing will happen. But what if we attack it from the bottom?"  
  
Element Lad smiled. "I've got an idea that it'll stop that thing in its  
tracks! Jo, can you dig me a hole I can go into so that thing won't run me  
over?"  
  
"Sure, that's not a problem."  
  
"I'll let that thing go right over my head and hit it from the bottom.  
We've got nothing to lose," Element Lad explained.  
  
A few minutes later, as Tazz's Infrared Machine was continuing  
its journey along the coast of Antarcrica, Ultra Boy quickly dug a grave-  
size hole in the ground for Element Lad. The Legionnaires waited in   
ambush.  
  
The huge rumbling future tank came to where they were and  
the bottom of the juggernaut began passing right over Element Lad's  
head. Seconds later, the machine stopped cold. There was a muffled  
boom from the machine and it began to collapse.  
  
"Jo!" Saturn Girl screamed. "Go get Jan, he's underneath that  
thing!"  
  
Ultra Boy moved quickly and dug an escape tunnel to where  
Element was trapped underneath the machine. Both managed to get  
out okay with no harm done to them.  
  
"I gave Tazz a hot tip," said Element Lad. "After turning the   
bottom of that Beamer to helium, I began turning the insides into  
thermite and that makes steel burn like paper. He's probably yelling  
for someone to put out the fire right now. Let's go watch the fun."  
  
No less eager than Element Lad to see the results, the  
five teenagers flew through the air for a mile, to land near the  
Infrared Beamer. It had grounded to a halt and smoke could be  
seen coming from its seams. Muffled explosions sounded inside, and  
a hole melted in the hull from the thermite could be seen. From the  
hole shot a lurid red glow, as a dozen fires burned fiercely.  
  
"It looks like my thermite was like a fuse, setting off various  
flammables," chortled Jan. "And here comes the cornered rat himself  
out of his tinder box."  
  
Soot-streaked, Tazz came scuttling out of a hatchway down a  
ladder that suddenly burned off at the top, tumbling him the rest of the  
way into the snow. He stood up dazedly, staggering away from the huge  
pyre that his machine had now become.  
  
But then he shrugged, facing the super-powered teens with his  
usual aplomb.  
  
"You think you won, eh? But before you destroyed my Infrared  
Beamer, I shot a missile down through the ice, to come to rest a mile  
below. In that missile's warhead is the heat-current radiator I told you of."  
  
He leered at them.  
  
"In nine days, its temperature charge will have built up to where the  
entire Antarctic ice cap melts, flooding the world. It will happen the same  
day that the giant comet arrives from space, to deal another shattering   
blow. Two of my Earth dooms have been launched, and no power on  
Earth, including you, can stop them."  
  
It was true, Saturn Girl knew, Tazz had won round two, after   
all.  
  
"But at least you'll die," pronounced Bouncing Boy as he inflated  
himself and began bouncing up and down in place. "We'll take you into  
custody and you'll await your dooms like everyone else."  
  
"I am without worry," said Tazz evenly. At Bouncing Boy's blank  
look, he added, "You fail to remember that I have an invisible force-  
shield surrounding me, even now."  
  
"But since then," hissed Element Lad, "Brainiac 5 analyzed your  
force-field's likely structure and devised a way for me to change your  
shield into ..."  
  
Element Lad pointed his hands at arms-length toward Tazz, and   
there was a puff of smoke. Then ... nothing.  
  
"Holy Jumping Hannah!" shrieked Bouncing Boy, eyes wide in  
disbelief. "I thought you were kidding. But you did it ... you destroyed  
Tazz!" His elation died quickly and a haunted look came into his eyes.  
"Of course, we still have two Earth dooms to face, but maybe a team  
of the world's best scientists can prevent them. Anyway, we won't have  
two other Earth dooms to contend with ..."  
  
"Yes, you will, my fat friend," came a familiar voice.  
  
"Tazz?" choked Bouncing Boy, aghast. "But -- but if he's   
dead ...?"  
  
They looked up. Floating down in thin air was an image of  
Tazz, shimmering as if cast from a distance. The image spoke: "All you  
destroyed was my android double."  
  
"Android double?" echoed Matter-Eater Lad.  
  
"Namely, a biological robot made of synthetic flesh. Naturally,  
I could not set off three Earth dooms simultaneously by myself. So I  
called for teleportation of my waiting android doubles from my aides  
in the future."  
  
Saturn Girl still thought it was a bad dream. "You mean that  
android could think, talk, and act like you? That's why I couldn't read  
its mind! It wasn't a living thing -- it was a machine!"  
  
"Down to the last tiny item," gloated the Tazz-image. "As for   
me, I'm somewhere else on Earth, utterly safe. I'm projecting my long-  
distance image and voice electronically to you from thousands of miles  
away."  
  
"Then you're either in the South Seas or in the Sahara," conjectured  
Bouncing Boy.  
  
"Brilliant," mocked Tazz. "Now that you five have failed to halt   
Earth doom number two, may I turn my full attention to the other two  
dooms? Good-bye!" And the image blinked out.  
  
"That guy burns me," exploded Ultra Boy. "Wait'll we meet next  
time!" he raged. "I'll crown him if it's the last thing I do."  
  
"Simmer down, Jo," admonished Bouncing Boy. "Your shouts  
are scaring half the penguins in Antarctica. Come on, let's get back to  
the clubhouse. I just hope the other teams do better than we did."  
  
  
***  
  
  
Down in the cavern on a South Seas island, at sight of Tazz and  
his rumbling Vulcan Machine, Colossal Boy shot himself up to ten-feet,  
while Shrinking Violet swiftly shrank to insect size.  
  
As the tiny girl flew near his face, Gim rapidly whispered a plan  
to her. "Got it," she murmured, darting away.  
  
Stealthily, Colossal Boy picked up a huge boulder among several  
that lay scattered about. Tazz still stood before a huge control board   
next to the machine, as if oblivious.  
  
Flexing all his muscles in one mighty heave, Colossal Boy flung  
the boulder at the control board.  
  
Tazz turned smilingly. "Rather futile gesture, Tall One," he said,  
touching a button on his belt. A hissing dis-ray accurately struck the  
boulder in mid-flight, and all that was seen of it was vagrant smoke.  
  
"I knew you were here all the time," came the mocking tones of  
the villian. "You and your female companion were monitored the moment  
you entered the caves. What now, Big Oaf?"  
  
Colossal Boy was already rushing forward with another huge  
boulder sprinting at a speed surprising for his hulk. When Tazz shot forth  
his dis-ray, Colossal Boy dodged with trigger-tense agility.  
  
Then he was upon Tazz, the boulder upraised in his hands,  
bringing it down with shattering force on his head.  
  
Colossal Boy was startled. He expected Tazz to have his personal  
force-shield around him protectively, yet the boulder did not bounce away.  
Colossal Boy was even more stunned to see the body of Tazz turn  
transparent under the blow and then fade from sight.  
  
"That was amusing," chortled a voice behind Colossal Boy.  
Whirling, he saw Tazz, alive and unharmed, coming around the corner  
of the giant machine. "It was a little game I purposely played, planting  
my three-dimensional image out in the open exposed. It quickly exposed  
your presence, eh, big one with the little brain?"  
  
Colossal Boy lunged and drove his fist at the second Tazz, but  
this time his blow bounced back from an invisible shell.  
  
"Naturally, I'm protected," gloated Tazz. "Now listen to another  
amusing story of how five Legionnaires killed me down in Antarctica."  
  
Tazz related the details of the episode. "And you see," he finished,  
"it was only my android double they destroyed. Isn't that hysterical?" he  
laughed.  
  
Colossal Boy squinted his eyes, looking Tazz over from head to  
foot. "What about you now? Are you another android -- or the real thing?"  
  
"What do you think?" leered Tazz. "We'll leave that as a tantalizing  
mystery. I enjoy feeling like the proverbial cat playing with the big mouse  
-- a gigantic mouse named ... what do they call you?"  
  
"Colossal Boy,"Gim replied trying to hold back his fury.  
  
"Ah, yes, Colossal Boy! How's the weather up there?" Tazz laughed.  
  
"All right, the joke's on me," growled Gim, exasperated at these  
ingenious tricks.  
  
"And the punch line is that I could ray you down on the spot,"  
came the grim rejoinder from Tazz, his fingers straying toward his belt.  
  
"Maybe so," admitted Colossal Boy, fine beads of sweat on his  
brow. "But tell me one thing first -- I'm asking out of curiosity. Did your  
Vulcan Machine start off that string of eruptions of long-dead volcanoes?"  
  
Android or not, Tazz's face shone with sudden pride. "Yes,   
Colossal Oaf. And I grant you reprieve until you hear the full story of   
Earth doom number three, being launched here in this cave."  
  
Perched nearby in a crevice in the wall, the tiny Shrinking Violet  
smiled to herself. It was exactly what she and Colossal Boy had planned,  
getting Tazz to boast of his accomplishment. It gave him sadistic satisfaction  
to have his Legion opponents know, before they died, what coup he had  
pulled.  
  
"The Vulcan Machine," began Tazz, "is a generator of seismic  
waves. That is, it creates ground vibrations which travel down through  
the Earth's crust to the molten magma lying some twenty-five miles   
below."  
  
Colossal Boy nodded in understanding.  
  
"Now, earthquakes, as you know," resumed Tazz, almost as  
if he were lecturing a class, "send forth seismic waves as their calling  
card. The seismographs of your scientists can pick them up and pin-  
point where any earthquake occurs. But what is the cause of earth-  
quakes?"  
  
He paused. Gim looked at him but didn't answer.  
  
Tazz let out a long sigh. "They are caused, you fool, by deep-  
seated slips of gigantic masses of rock inside the crust, which in turn  
are caused by leakage of molten magma through huge cracks."  
  
"Okay," nodded Colossal Boy. "Earthquakes are often the  
prelude to volcano eruptions, allowing a stream of molten rock to  
work its way up through an ancient weakness in the so-called solid  
ground."  
  
"So, you really aren't that stupid, are you?" the villian grinned.  
He waved at his rumbling machine.  
  
"So the Vulcan Machine simply sends down high-powered seismic  
waves to rupture the crust at key spots. A boiling river of molten lava   
rushes up from below and snakes its way to the surface, there to erupt  
into the air violently. I touched off the island chain of dead volcanoes.  
You saw the result."  
  
"And your aim," guessed Colossal Boy grimly, "Is to set off more  
volcanoes, all around Earth?"  
  
"It's just a matter of broadcasting the seismic triggers," agreed Tazz.  
"I'm using what would be termed the 'shotgun' method,' scattering the  
vibratory 'fuses,' if you will, in all directions, downward through your  
planet. Eventually, all the volcanoes on Earth, dead or alive, will erupt  
without let-up -- a worldwide salvo that will devastate civilization.  
  
"When?" breathed Colossal Boy, shaken at the mental picture of  
tens of thousands of volcanoes blowing their tops all over the world.  
  
"Nine days from now," gloated Tazz, "the giant comet my Mount  
Everest ultramagnet pulled down will smash into Earth when the Antarctic  
floods of the melting ice cap reach their peak. At that time, the worldwide  
volcano barrage will also open up, and three earth-wrecking holocausts   
in combination will start to render the Earth extinct."  
  
Tazz turned and poised his finger near his control board. "When  
I press that final red button, the seismic broadcast will speed down  
through the crust, setting off that geological chain reaction. The Vulcan  
Machine has been warming up to its full ultrasonic power. Now it is  
ready ...  
  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	11. Underground Duel

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 11 - UNDERGROUND DUEL  
  
  
Shrinking Violet was ready. She had been quiet and listening to  
Tazz all along and was waiting for -- to know about those deadly buttons.  
That was what Colossal Boy had previously whispered to her: "After I  
get Tazz to spill the beans, keeping his attention on me, you do your stuff."  
  
And now taking off into the air from her perch, Violet aimed for  
the back of the villian's head, where she intended to land as she grew to  
normal size. But what was Tazz saying ...?  
  
"Your petite girlfriend thinks I'm unaware of her," and he looked  
at a device on his wrist. "But my wrist-monitor, which magnifies micro-  
scopic objects, has been following her all the time. And now she'll have  
company."  
  
Tazz pushed a button. A panel opened in his control board. Out  
flew a bug that made a peculiar metallic buzz, which rose in an ominous  
crescendo.  
  
In mid-air, Violet came to a halt, startled at what she saw coming.  
"A mechanical bug," she gasped. Violet was caught between the proverbial  
rock and hard place. If she now grew back to normal size, Tazz would get  
her. If she stayed at insect size, she would have to eavade this mechanical  
attacker.  
  
It was twice her size, and was made of gleaming metal, its wings  
operating from some tiny internal motor. In shape, it was like no species  
of insect, but was a hybrid mixture of all types, with six jointed saw-edged  
legs. It had two huge mandibles that clanged as they opened and shut, and  
a long steel stinger like a knight's lance. It was a formidable machine-  
powered robot insect against Violet had no chance.  
  
As the mechanical Frankenstein came buzzing toward her like a  
ferocious praying mantis, Violet frantically began twisting and looping in  
the air, hoping to elude it.  
  
"She will never escape that bug bloodhound," promised Tazz,  
watching his minature monitor. "It has target-seeking sensors, attuned  
to the female's heartbeat. The pounding of her pulse is all the robot  
needs to hang on her trail and duplicate every maneuver she makes."  
  
And now a deadly dogfight -- between two pseudo-insects --  
took place.  
  
No matter which way Violet darted, the miniature metallic monster  
followed relentlessly. When she tried a straightaway flight at top speed, the  
robot bug quickly began putting on steam and overtaking her.  
  
An idea struck her. She flew toward the cave wall and darted  
into a crack in the stone. "It's too narrow for him to squeeze in," she  
breathed thankfully.  
  
But outside the crack, the tiny tin terror began extending a steel-  
spring probe, further and further. At its end were barbs, and Tazz's jeering  
voice drifted to Violet's ears as he watched all this on his wrist-monitor:  
"Those barbs are poisoned, my dear. One touch and you shrivel into a  
miniature mummy."  
  
Violet was forced to slip aside before the barbed nemesis could  
reach her, then work her way out of the crack. But now she was in the  
open again, at the mercy of pursuing robot insect. Was there no escape  
for her?  
  
"Coward!" said Tazz mockingly to Colossal Boy, who stood  
helplessly. "Why don't you aid your girlfriend? Surely a great giant like  
you could defeat a mere mechanical bug."  
  
But of course, that's just what Gim couldn't do -- not as Colossal  
Boy. As Tazz gloatingly glued his eyes on his wrist-monitor screen, he did  
not notice Colossal Boy shrinking down to his normal height and vanishing.  
  
A moment later, Colossal Boy sprang into action, running across  
the floor to the Vulcan machine and swiftly climbing it, with many hand-  
holds avaialable to him in his normal size. When he was perched some-  
where near the top, on a huge pipe, he cupped his lips and called: "Vi!  
It's me. Lead that tin bug over this way."  
  
Hearing the shout, Violet swung up toward the pipe, the mechanical  
bug pursuing as he was programmed to do. Colossal Boy's shout was no  
warning to its one-track computer mind.  
  
"Vi! Get behind me!" he ordered as she approached him. She   
darted around his body as Gim eyed the robot insect coming toward  
him. Then Colossal boy unwound a teriffic blow, "Right at your chin, if  
any," he barked.  
  
Evidently the miniature mechanical monster was not built to with-  
stand a blow from a Legionnaire. Gim's blow drove the bug into a nearby  
wall and the attacker cracked into several pieces.  
  
Muttering what must have been curses in his native tongue, the  
villian poised a finger over a red button on the wrist-monitor. "So, Colossal   
Oaf, you assumed your normal form to tackle my robot girl-killer, eh?  
There's still one thing I can do ... I can press the destruction button and  
blow this cavern, along with you two, to smithereens."  
  
"No ... no!" cried a different voice from behind him. Tazz slowly  
turned and saw four more Legionnaires. Sun Boy aimed a beam of red-hot  
heat at the alien from the future. Expecting to see Dirk's beam of heat to  
bounce off a force-shield -- it didn't. The heat blast struck Tazz right on  
the hand and wrist, melting the device and blackening the villian's hand.  
But he didn't cry out in pain.  
  
"He's an android," gasped Violet in realization.  
  
"Right," he replied. Tazz the android was himself guided by   
remote controls and a monitor into which the real Tazz was staring,   
elsewhere on Earth.  
  
Colossal Boy, angrier than a hornet, grew back to a size of  
ten-feet tall.  
  
Tazz suddenly turned and stopped abruptly, seeing the giant teen  
towering before him. "Back in your Colossal form!"  
  
"Yes, and my anger is as big as I am." Suddenly his arms went  
around Tazz, force-field and all. "After all," rumbled Gim, "even with that  
invisible shield, its only ten feet around."  
  
Yanking the Tazz android and his energy bubble off the floor,  
Colossal Boy hurled them stright at the Vulcan Machine with titanic  
force, aiming for the electronic devices within its heart.  
  
A gigantic spark leaped forth, piercing the energy bubble and  
electrocuting the android into a blackened mass. It could hardly be called  
a corpse, since it had never been truly alive.  
  
"Everybody out of the cave!" roared Ferro Lad. Violet landed  
on Gim's shoulder and held on to his collar as he began running with the  
others into a side passage through which they had entered before. Ferro  
Lad strode to where two limestone columns in the middle of the big  
cavern extended from floor to roof.  
  
By some freak of geological processes, through eons of time, two  
giant stalagmites from the floor and two stalactites from the ceiling had  
met and merged.  
  
Crooking an elbow around each of these natural pillars, Ferro Lad  
strained mightily, knotting his muscles in his body. Stone creaked and   
groaned.  
  
Suddenly like a cannon shot, both limestone pillars snapped. A  
ceiling weakened by ages of seeping waters now began to collapse, as  
Andrew had surmised would happen.  
  
With a resounding roar louder than a hundred thunderclaps, the  
entire cavern collapsed inward. Untold tons of rock crashed down on  
the Vulcan Machine, flattening it into a hissing, smoking ruin. Nothing  
man-made or alien-made could withstand that crushing force. Nor any-  
thing alive ...  
  
Back on the surface, outside, a projected image of Tazz was  
seen in front of the five Legionnaires. Tazz spoke calmly from his   
unknown retreat far away, "Legionnaires, the Masked One didn't  
accomplish anything. While the Big Oaf was swatting my robot bug, I  
had pressed the final button, sending the ultrasonic broadcast of trigger  
waves down into the Earth's crust. Such sonic vibrations, as you know,   
follow rock strata everywhere. Thus, the destruction of my Vulcan  
Machine now was a futile gesture."  
  
Tazz's voice rang triumphantly. "In nine days, along with Earth  
dooms one and two, volcanic catastrophe number three will also   
happen, right on schedule."  
  
His frosty eyes stared straight at the Legionnaires now, and  
there was a curl on his lips. "But I think the end of the world, for you,  
has already happened -- the Masked One, of course, could never come  
out of the wrecked cavern alive."  
  
"You're right," murmured Brainiac 5. "Absolutely right, Tazz."  
  
The Legion scientist smiled and looked past the image of  
Tazz and could see Ferro Lad!  
  
Tazz cursed eloquently when his image turned and focused on  
Andrew. "But I'm glad," he said then, with a malicious grin. "It means  
that you will be around to die with the rest of the human race, nine days  
from now, when the world comes to an end. Now ... good-bye."  
  
His floating image faded away, as a last harsh laugh rippled  
mockingly through the air.  
  
"That's true," whispered Violet. "We won against the Tazz  
android, but lost to Tazz himself."  
  
"Well, at least one thing we know," muttered Brainiac 5,  
"is that the real Tazz, who was neither at Antarctica, nor here in the  
South Seas, must be in the Sahara. Here's hoping that team of  
Legionnaires can settle with that inhuman monster there."  
  
"By the way," asked Colossal Boy, "How'd you get out of that  
collapse Ferro?"  
  
"Brainy had an escape route planned for me even before we   
made our presence known to Tazz. As the cavern came tumbling down,  
I just flew through the passage as fast as I could. Luckily I'm invulnerable.  
Otherwise, I'd never would've made it out."  
  
"Let's get back to the clubhouse fast," said Invisible Kid. "We''ll  
rejoin the others there. The Antarctic team must be on the way back.  
Then we can all go to the Sahara and help out there. It looks as if the  
big showdown will be there."  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	12. Desert Danger

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 12 - DESERT DANGER  
  
  
For many wasted hours, Phantom Girl, Star Boy, Dream Girl, Karate   
Kid and Light Lass had been searching the vast Sahara desert.  
  
"Three and a half million square miles," rode the nagging thought   
within Phantom Girl.  
  
First the five Legionnaires had made wide sweeps over the great  
desert in their Legion Mark III space cruiser, peering down. But when they  
couldn't see anything, they landed at a central spot, and then broke out the  
air-car that was stored in the ship. Inside the air-car was survival gear that  
they would need out in the vast desert.  
  
Eventually, the Legionnaires stopped and used their portable   
sensors to slowly scan outward in a radius of 500 miles. Dream Girl heard  
a beeping from the air-car. The Legion clubhouse was calling on the vid-  
com. Nura Nal, also known as Dream Girl, activated the communications   
device and saw Lightning Lad's image on the screen. "The South Seas team   
is heading back to the clubhouse." He gave a quick resume of the skirmish  
against Tazz and the Vulcan Machine.  
  
"Hmm," said the platinum-haired girl, "so it was another android  
double of Tazz in the South Seas, as well as in Antarctica."  
  
"Right, Nura. That means you'll run into the genuine Tazz. After  
the South Seas team reach the clubhouse, Invisible Kid will probably send  
another team to come help you five in the Sahara. But we'll wait and see  
what he wants to do."  
  
"Okay," responded Dream Girl. "But meanwhile, we'll be searching  
for him ourselves. Talk to ya."   
  
The girl from the planet Naltor climbed off the air-car and began  
walking toward her companions. Star Boy remarked to himself that of  
the five of them in desert, Nura was probably the best dressed -- or  
better described -- undressed for the mission. She was wearing a very  
skimpy white outfit that was more like a swimsuit than anything else. The  
outfit accented every single curve of her body. If she spent too much time   
out in the hot sun, she most definitely was going to get a sunburn. "Nah,"   
he said to himself, "I'm sure she is using sunscreen.  
  
As her name implied, Dream Girl had the ability to see the future. All   
the people on her home planet could do that as well, but Nura was known to   
have the strongest ability. Her sister, the White Witch, was able to work up a   
magic spell that gave Nura the ability to see future events up to one year   
before they happened. What was remarkable was her visions were always   
one-hundred percent accurate.   
  
Nura's thoughts were not pleasant as she returned to the others.  
Three incredible future machines had triggered off three ghastly Earth   
dooms. Even if the five of them, here, in the Sahara Desert, did succeed  
in halting doom number four, Earth was hardly saved. Warning the Earth  
government was hopeless. Who could stop the giant comet plunging  
through space toward Earth? Superboy, Supergirl and Mon-El had not   
answered the Legion call back. Some of the Legionnaires had guessed   
Superboy and Supergirl were busy with a missions of their own in the  
past. But nobody was sure where Mon-El was. Besides the comet, there  
was still the mile-deep heat device that would melt the colossal Antarctic  
ice cap and flood the world and the worldwide fusillade of volcanoes that  
would erupt, started off by the Vulcan Machine.  
  
"I want to get my hands on that Tazz," Karate Kid said, breaking  
Dream Girl's train of thought. "If I get him, he won't escape to the future  
and finish his conquest of the galaxy. He'll stay here to share the end of  
the world with us ... so help me!"  
  
With that vow burning through his veins, the martial arts expert  
turned back to get additional sensor readings, which now showed the  
outlines of an old abandoned fort, completely deserted within a straggling  
oasis of drooping palms. Even the well had dried up, according the scan.  
  
But where were Tazz and his rocket? Out in the hot open desert  
itself?  
  
The Legionnaires studied the sensor scan and the image it made of  
the fort that had one slender tower. Peering closely and tuning the image  
sharper. Phantom Girl sucked in her breath. That was no tower -- it looks  
more like the nose of rocket sticking up within the high outer wall of the  
fort.  
  
The five Legionnaires all looked at one another. Without saying a  
word they jumped into the air-car and started flying off across the waste-  
land.  
  
With nothing but smooth sand before them, the Legionnaires were  
able to shift their air-car into a top speed of 100 miles per hour for the  
three-hour trip to the fort, some 300 miles south.  
  
It was the south-central Sahara, the most desolate area, spotted  
with just a few widely scattered nomadic camps. Yes, there were still  
nomads in the 30th century. It was doubtful if anyone from the outside  
world had been here in fifty years.  
  
Endless burning sand, rippling in the wind, stretched before Phantom  
Girl's squinting sun-dazzled eyes. She fumbled beside her and put some sun-  
glasses over her eyes -- otherwise she'd go glare-blind in an hour.  
  
Heat rose in invisible, suffocating waves from the shiny sands.   
Luckily, the air-car had an air cooling system, otherwise they'd be dying  
in the 125 degree heat. The Legionnaires drank from their water supply  
on an almost continous basis.  
  
When the ramparts of the fort rose over the horizon before them,  
"Tazz's hangout," Dream Girl muttered.  
  
Cannily, Star Boy drove up behind the screening palms of the  
oasis, cutting off a direct view from the fort, hoping to surprise Tazz. They  
belly-crawled through the sand, brushing aside lizards and other creatures  
of the desert that nearly made some of the girls scream. Soundlessly, they  
wriggled among stone debris where one portion of the old fort's wall had  
collapsed.  
  
Even though they were skilled in the tactics of unseen and unheard   
approach, and in fact, did not make a noticeable sound, they were still  
greeted by a mocking voice, "Good afternoon, Legionnaires! Why did  
you go to all that trouble sneaking in?" It was Tazz, pointing to a monitor  
screen atop a box. "You have been under surveillance ever since your   
vehicle first approached the old fort."  
  
Tinya Wazzo, also known as Phantom Girl, conquered her first  
surge of disappointment. Swiftly her eyes took in the wide courtyard and  
the tall rocket standing on end. It was much larger than the Legion's Mark  
III spacecraft. Turning back to Tazz, Tinya's eyes narrowed. Was the   
faint purplish aura of his force-field, that Brainy had briefed them about,  
missing for some reason? Was he vulnerable?  
  
Suddenly Karate Kid plunged forward in a crouch to find out.  
  
Tazz stood unperturbed. "You, the one that they call Karate Kid,  
are said to be an incomparable man-to-man, face-to-face, toe-to-toe fighter  
that no other man on Earth is a match for ... except one," he said.  
  
He touched a button on his belt and figure dashed out of a barracks  
doorway nearby.  
  
Karate Kid's driving plunge had ground to a halt, in utter shock.  
The figure coming toward him in a crouch, legs churning, powerfully ... a  
uniform of tan, brown, and a black belt ...  
  
"It's you!" choked Light Lass. "Another Karate Kid!"  
  
"His android double, actually," explained Tazz. "While you five  
were supposedly sneaking in, my electro-scan ray was X-raying you all  
inside and out, feeding data into a bio-computer, which then built up a  
carbon copy of your Karate Kid, so to speak. His body and mind are  
exactly like his. So, in a sense, my bodyguard is ... Karate Kid!"  
  
Tazz finished with a devilish laugh. "Now, Karate Kid, see if you  
can defeat yourself."  
  
Recovering from his first shock, Karate Kid sprang forward to  
meet his twin's charge.  
  
"Don't worry, Val, I'll just weigh it down so it can't move," Star  
Boy said.  
  
Karate Kid's right arm quickly sprang out as if telling Star Boy to  
stop. "NO!" he cried. "I'll handle this."  
  
Phantom Girl just shook her head in disbelief. "There he goes  
again, playing Mr. Macho."  
  
"Don't you love it!" Dream Girl said in a husky, low voice.  
  
Tinya and Light Lass just stared at Nura like there was something  
wrong with her.  
  
Like super-gladiators, two powerful figures came together with  
bruising impact. Their blows to each other so loud that the other   
Legionnaires cringed. When the two combatants threw each other  
into a nearby crumbling wall of the fort, a dozen loose bricks fell   
out.  
  
They both reeled back. It was almost like a parody in pantomine,  
the two actors doing everything the same, and reacting exactly alike.  
  
In unison, they swung the world's most skilled hands at each other.  
When the real Karate Kid flung his leg around to slice at his opponents legs,  
the second Karate Kid did a back-flip to avoid the move.  
  
Karate Kid's double leaped headlong to tackle him around the legs  
and they both crashed to the ground. They wrestled and tumbled in the dirt.  
When Karate Kid pulled a judo move to hurl the android back, his double  
promptly rolled on his back and footed Val away as he charged.  
  
Tazz had watched the furious battle with an amused grin. "Very  
entertaining, but I have work to do." He looked at the other Legionnaires.  
"While your Karate Kid is busy fighting himself, I'll start the countdown   
for my storm satellite."  
  
The villian pushed buttons on a control board near the rocket.  
"In ten seconds, the rocket will take off."  
  
The Legionnaires looked at one another, undecided what to  
do. Star Boy was the first to move as he started toward Tazz. But  
before he could reach the alien, he would have to cross the two  
Karate Kid's still trying to kill one another.  
  
Karate Kid was quite aware of what Tazz was doing. He said  
to himself that it was now or never and he was intent on stopping Earth  
doom number four -- whatever it was -- from being launched.  
  
Val tried a desperate ruse, facing his android double, who was  
between him and Tazz. Karate Kid leaped high in the air for a deadly  
drop kick But with the assistance of his flight ring, he actually leaped  
over the android. Landed on his feet quickly and executed a backward  
kick that caught the android unawares, sending the deadly double to  
the ground. Karate Kid heard synthetic bones crack within the   
artificial man.  
  
Karate Kid did not take the time to look because he then leapt  
backwards, straight toward Tazz, at his controls.  
  
"Ignition!" Val heard, just before he smashed into the control box  
and tipped it over with a crash, staggering Tazz back.  
  
  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	13. Legionnaires Darkest Hour

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 13 - LEGIONNAIRES DARKEST HOUR  
  
  
Karate Kid fell back as a roar burst from the rear of the rocket  
and a glowing flame drove it upward.   
  
"Too late!" crowed Tazz. "My rocket is on its way into orbit above  
Earth."  
  
Karate Kid clutched at him desperately but once again met the  
diamond-hard invisible shield of force that had previously protected the  
villian.  
  
"I had to convert all my available power into the launching procedure  
before," Tazz said. "But now I can keep my shield around me again." He  
shrugged. "It hardly matters that you disposed of my android bodyguard.  
You may as well share my joy now that Earth doom number four is launched  
on schedule, and hear all about it. I want you Legionnaires to know my  
achievements in full so that you will more exquisitely enjoy zero-day -- when  
your world ends."  
  
"Never mind rubbing it in," growled Dream Girl. "Let us hear the  
facts."  
  
Tazz chuckled at the platinum-haired girl, and went on. "My aides  
in the 40th century devised and teletransported this launch rocket to me in the  
30th century. Its payload is about to got into orbit."  
  
Tazz pointed to a monitor screen in which the powerful rocket could  
be seen driving upward and starting to slant toward the horizontal. A short  
time later, an outer sheath at the top of the rocket split open to reveal an  
intricate satellite.  
  
"The Storm Satellite," said Tazz. "As it spins around Earth about   
every ninety minutes, it will spray down kinetic forces into the top layers  
of the atmosphere. A violent wind will gradually arise in the thin stratosphere  
and work its way down into the thicker air near Earth."  
  
"You mean all the air around Earth will turn windy?" asked Karate  
Kid.  
  
"Yes, in eight days. The satellite went into polar orbit, which means  
it will shift westward every revolution, and thus will cover every area of the  
upper air daily. It will eventually whip up a superhurricane all over Earth,  
with wind velocities of five hundred miles an hour."  
  
Phantom Girl gasped. "Most natural hurricanes are about 100 miles  
an hour."  
  
"You can picture, then," Tazz gloated, "what my superwind will do,  
blowing away people, buildings, everything. It will have the force to level  
the sturdiest steel skyscrapers, which will crash in big cities and create  
further shambles. After a few hours, Earth's surface will be swept bare."  
  
Karate Kid shuddered at the stark picture of wind-swept destruction.  
  
"Of course," said Tazz, "there won't be much left to be swept  
away afer the giant comet crashes, and the Antarctic floods arise, and  
Earth's volcanoes erupt in unison. Do you think, Legionnaires, that even  
one person will be left alive on Earth after the four dooms strike?"  
  
The five Legionnaires choked, unable to answer.  
  
"There won't be," Tazz predicted savagely. "And that means my  
goal will be accomplished, eight days from now. With Earthly civilization  
wiped out, there will be no human race to build up a superior technology  
that would in the 40th century smash my drive for galactic conquest. In  
short, the new parallel universe, or if universe, will replace the former  
real universe. And in the parallel universe, I will win the galaxy."  
  
Phantom Girl, who was dressed all in white -- a body-hugging  
white uniform with a black letter "P" on her chest, white boots, gloves   
and long cape -- felt hollow inside. The brunette asked herself, had this   
heartless monster won all? What were his plan's now? "With your four   
Earth dooms launched, are you going to return to the future?"  
  
"Not yet, White One," Tazz answered. "I will remain on 30th  
century Earth for three more days, to observe and make sure the four  
dooms are properly building up to their climaxes. If one or more of them  
seems to be halting, I will make the proper adjustments to insure their  
final success. Then I will say farewell to Earth ... forever."  
  
The villian's frosty eyes glared at the Legionnaires triumphantly.  
"Rest assured that there will be no problems with my plans of Earth  
destruction. In eight days ... It will all be over."  
  
Rage boiled up in Karate Kid now, at the smug, ruthless monster  
from the future. Leaping up, Val slammed away at Tazz with everything  
he had -- or at the force-shell protecting him. It was futile, senseless,  
Karate Kid knew. Yet he could not stop himself from hammering away.  
  
Tazz was laughing, harshly.  
  
"Keep it up, assinine Legionnaire. You will never burst through my  
energy shell."  
  
Yet suddenly, there was no invisible obstruction there, and Karate  
Kid's fist connected solidly with the alien's chin, sending him head-over-  
heels.  
  
Val Armorr stood stunned, hardly believing it had happened. Then  
he leaped forward and ripped the belt full of buttons off Tazz, who was just   
dazedly picking himself out of the dirt. "Without this belt of weapon rays or  
your force-shield, you're my prisoner."  
  
"But how can my force-shield be gone?" said the bewildered Tazz.  
  
"Because," a feminine voice rang out, "I penetrated it and turned it  
off."  
  
Karate Kid whirled. "Phantom Girl!"  
  
"Maybe we can't stop your Storm Satellite," said Karate Kid,  
seizing the still-dazed Tazz, "but we certainly can blackmail this fugitive  
from the future."  
  
"Blackmail?" echoed Light Lass, who was the twin sister of   
Lightning Lad. Ayla Ranzz was also born on the planet Winath and had   
obtained lightning projection powers along with her two brothers on the  
planet Korbal, when Lightning Beasts attacked them. When Garth died   
in battle with Zaryan the conqueror, she disguised herself as him and tried   
to take his place in the Legion. Her imposture was eventually discovered,   
but she stayed with the Legion as Lightning Lass. When Lightning Lad was   
revived, she didn't worry about being forced out of the Legion -- she simply   
decided to let life proceed as it would. Soon enough, her place in the Legion  
was assured, Dream Girl used her home planet's science to change her   
lightning projection powers to gravity-canceling powers and became Light   
Lass.  
  
"First of all," explained Karate Kid, "remember that the other teams  
encountered only androids of Tazz in Antarctica and the South Seas. But this  
is the real Tazz now, handling the Storm Satellite's launch in person.  
  
Karate Kid shook Tazz like a rat.  
  
"And now here's the pitch, mister. It won't do you much good to be  
here for the end of the world, will it? If you die too, in the holocaust you   
caused, you can hardly return to the 40th century, and carry out your  
conquest of space."  
  
Tazz paled, and Karate Kid went on measuring his words grimly.  
  
"That's the blackmail, pal. We're offering you a trade. Your life  
for the lives of billions of people doomed on Earth. I'm assuming that with   
your future science you can somehow reverse or halt the Earth-doom  
processes ... Well?"  
  
"But what if I can't?" choked Tazz, his face distorted with fright.  
  
"Then you stick with us, as our prisoner, for eight days," said  
Star Boy. "You'll have a grandstand seat for the big show that you  
produced, as Earth cracks up around your ears as well as ours."  
  
Tazz's face had turned to putty. Terror shone from his eyes. "I --  
I don't know if the four dooms can be halted," he stammered. "I never  
thought of it."  
  
"Well, you'd better start thinking right now," spoke up Karate Kid.  
"And if you fail ..." He pressed a pressure point on Tazz's body. Tazz   
winced in pain. "You're going to die a thousand deaths in the next few days  
before the real thing comes. I'll use you for as a practice dummy every day,   
see?"  
  
Star Boy approached, and he now seized the trembling villian in  
his two hands. "That is, Karate Kid will have you only in between the   
times you sink you into the ground under your own additional weight  
that I give you." Star Boy turned his power onto Tazz and he immediately   
felt such incredible heaviness that he couldn't move.  
  
The red-headed Light Lass, in her dark blue and white short  
uniform with the emblem of a feather and orange form-fitting shorts   
that accented her perfect legs in white high-heeled shoes, was next   
to persuade Tazz to go along with them. She said to the villian, "When   
the boys get tired of entertaining you, I'll take over," she promised grimly.  
  
Ayla used her power to fling the screeching alien up in the air, like  
a mere toy. He sailed up to dizzy heights before he plummeted to the  
ground with a thud that knocked his air out.  
  
"And," added the Phantom Girl from the planet Bgztl. Bgztl is a world   
separated from Earth's dimension by a "buffer zone." Every inhabitant of the   
planet is able, to some extent, to mentally shift part or all of his or her bodily   
mass into this dimension, enabling that Bgztlr to pass through solid objects.   
She looked Tazz in the eyes, "I would listen to them you monster. We have  
other members that can do far worse to you."  
  
"I think," advised Dream Girl mildly, "you better listen to them,  
Tazz. Even our leader Invisible Kid probably wouldn't be able to hold  
them back."  
  
Karate Kid grabbed Tazz by the neck and shook a mighty balled  
fist in his face. "I'll use you as a punching bag every hour on the hour. Give,  
you worm ... can you save Earth?"  
  
But Tazz was laughing now, wildly. Karate Kid let him go, surprised.  
  
"Did he lose his mind?" asked Val.  
  
But Tazz replied, "Pretty good play-acting, eh?"  
  
All the Legionnaires jerked at this new voice out of thin air -- the  
voice of Tazz.  
  
Then they saw the image of the villian's leering face floating toward  
them.  
  
"Grife!" whispered Star Boy, grabbing the now lifeless body of  
Tazz. "Then this was an android too."  
  
"Good afternoon from the real Tazz," said the mocking image.  
"What fools you Legionnaires are! Under my control, my guided android  
pretended fear and helplessness just to carry out the farce to its end. I  
have made utter fools of five of the greatest champions of Earth."  
  
They all looked the way they felt ... miserable. Victory had been  
snatched out of their hands.  
  
"Let me explain," went on Tazz. "I sent out my three androids from  
the start to Antarctica, the South Seas, and the Sahara. I myself have been  
safely hidden in a secret haven all the time. Where? You'll never guess. I  
must stay three days to make sure the four Earth dooms are coming on  
schedule. Well, Legionnaires? An old Earth phrase is most apt at this point:  
Cat got your tongue?"  
  
None of them had anything to say.  
  
"Farewell," said the image, receding and fading away. "You'll never  
find me in my hidden haven." A last mocking laugh ... then silence.  
  
There was an awkward silence among the five Legionnaires too.  
  
"Three days to search the whole world for Tazz, without a clue,"  
said Star Boy, voicing the thoughts of all of them. "We haven't got a ghost  
of a chance. Where would we look first?"  
  
Dream Girl's legs buckled and she fell to the ground. Star Boy  
quickly rushed to her side and lifted her upper body up. ""Nura?"  
  
"In the sea," she said weakly.  
  
"Is that what you saw?" asked Ayla.  
  
"I saw Tazz hiding undersea," Dream Girl replied. She closed her  
eyes as if trying to recall additional details of her vision. "Tazz is in some  
sunken hideout in the deepest part of Earth's oceans -- down in something  
called the Pacific Trench between Hawaii and Japan, seven and a half miles  
deep."  
  
"But how do we get there, and what do we do?" Light Lass asked.  
  
"That," said Dream Girl, drawing herself up, "is something to be  
worked out at a Legion briefing back at the clubhouse. Let's go home."  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	14. Destination DeepSea

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 14 - DESTINATION DEEP-SEA  
  
  
"Ah, nothing like a good night's sleep," said Sun Boy, coming into  
the Council Room in the Legion clubhouse to find Shrinking Violet already  
there. "Not to mention a sonic shower, a change of uniform and good meal.  
I feel great."  
  
"Like a new man," said Violet.  
  
Sun Boy added, "I wonder if people think we Legionnaires never  
bother with life's trivialities -- sleep, showers, meals, trimming our fingernails,  
and such. I'll bet they think I wear my Sun Boy uniform day in and day out,  
without change."  
  
"Don't you?" queried Violet in wide-eyed innocence.  
  
"Very funny. It so happens I have three full uniforms."  
  
He eyed Violet with a devilish glint in his eye. "You ever notice  
some of the others' uniforms? Some are not always alike. Take Star  
Boy for example, you ever notice he has one costume with a yellow  
star and another with a white star? Isn't that weird?"  
  
"Why, that's pretty funny," laughed Violet.  
  
"Yeah?" said Sun Boy, startled and pleased.  
  
"Yes, but it only proves," said the girl sweetly, "that you have waaayy  
too much time on your hands."  
  
Sun Boy slapped his forehead dramatically. "Why do I always play  
stooge for you?" he said plaintively.  
  
They were bantering as usual but only to cover up the gnawing  
dread within. Multiple Earth dooms launched by Tazz the Invader ... to  
crush this thought they had to play a game of brittle humor.  
  
"Speaking of uniforms," put in Colossal Boy, "shed a sympathetic  
tear for Violet and me. Our special costumes have to stretch and shrink  
from insect proportions up to human size -- and to 25-foot tallness or   
more in my case -- along with our bodies. They wear out in a month and  
cost plenty to replace them constantly."  
  
Gim looked out to door of the room and down the hall. "If you think  
we got it rough," pointing at the blue, white and red figure approaching, "what  
about Ferro Lad? That uniform turns into iron."  
  
Invisible Kid came into the room with a bunch of other Legionnaires.  
He called out in a firm voice: "Okay, let's get started." They sat around at  
their designated spots in the Council Room.  
  
Lyle read the news from his omnicon. "Scientists report several  
alarming and unexplained phenomena occurring around the Earth. The  
Antarctic ice cap has begun melting mysteriously. Volcano eruptions have  
started in the South Pacific and are spreading through thousands of islands.  
Violent wind currents have been unaccountably arising in the high  
stratosphere, plus the sudden appearance of a new satellite. Even  
more baffling is the giant comet plunging into the solar system with  
a trajectory that may come alarmingly close to Earth, though full computer  
data is not yet in."  
  
Invisible Kid eyed the others around the room.  
  
"If we secretly hoped that Tazz was bluffing or was self-deluded,  
we know otherwise now. Unless by some miracle he has miscalculated the  
final results, Earth will meet oblivion in just one week. The question is, do  
we inform the authorities of the machinations of Tazz, which so far we  
Legionnaires alone know about? Opinions please?"  
  
Matter-Eater Lad shook his head slowly. "It would leak out to  
the public and create needless panic."  
  
"No emergency measures can be taken to save people from any of  
the dooms," spoke up Element Lad, "even if they were forewarned."  
  
"Only a mass migration into space would save the people of   
Earth," added Light Lass. "And we don't have the spacecraft to do that."  
  
"Besides," drawled Dream Girl, "who could do anything against Tazz  
if we Legionnaires can't?"  
  
Invisible Kid looked around to see if there were any other comments.  
No one else spoke up. "Then we are unanimous that we go ahead on our own  
without a word to the world."  
  
Lyle's next remark startled all of them. "We, of course, can take our  
ships and leave Earth before the fateful day. I remind you that we also have  
a responsibility to protect the United Planets and not just Earth. You will  
vote yea or nay."  
  
"Negative," shot back in quick chorus from Colossal Boy and Star  
Boy.  
  
At the same time Ultra Boy sprang to his feet, his face livid. "Lyle,  
that was an insult. Do you think any of us would be spineless, cowardly  
worms and save our own hides?" He caught his breath. "Wait ... how do  
you vote, leader man?"  
  
"Relax, Jo," said Invisible Kid. "I say the same thing, negative. So  
that's out of the way."  
  
Lyle's face became more serious. "Next is the matter of invading the  
undersea lair of Tazz. Brainy says we have a suitable diving craft, among the  
many vehicles he has invented for our special missions." He looked around  
slowly. "Now, if Tazz is on guard against us, he can probably spot our  
approaching craft like a sitting duck. On the other hand, he may be so  
confident we couldn't locate him that he won't expect us. We'll have to  
run that risk."  
  
They all nodded grimly.  
  
Invisible Kid continued, "Now, unfortunately, the bathysphere is  
unable to hold all of us. So, the first team that I led to Mount Everest will  
go on the undersea mission."  
  
"Awww, come on, Lyle!" yelled a disappointed Star Boy. "I want  
another crack at that creep."  
  
The Legion's leader nodded his head in understanding, "I know, I  
know, Thom. But the craft only sits five and Violet can go because she can  
shrink down and can sit anywhere. The six of us have the most experience  
now against Tazz. So, I think it's the best team to go. Actually, to penetrate  
the personal force field Tazz might be shielded by, we should bring along  
Phantom Girl. We stand a good chance to capture him -- for real this time.  
But, no, we'll stick with the team I've chosen."  
  
The Legionnaires flushed at the thought of almost having Tazz in the  
Sahara, when they captured the android.  
  
"Then we can make a deal with him," finished Invisible Kid. "His  
life for saving the world -- if he can. If he can't, that's his tough luck."  
  
"As well as ours," said Ultra Boy.  
  
Invisible Kid smiled crookedly. "That would shift destiny into a third  
kind of parallel universe, one in which Tazz, dying in the 30th century, never  
exists in the 40th century at all. Thus we would have saved twenty thousand  
other future worlds, if not this one."  
  
"Yet nobody would ever know," mused Brainiac 5 softly. "All Earth  
records would be destroyed."  
  
"Right, Brainy." quipped Light Lass. "But the thought is plenty  
strange. The joke would really be on Tazz, caught in his own time trap."  
  
"Some joke," growled Colossal Boy, "with Earth wiped out along  
with him. I say let's get going against that monster from the future."  
  
"Seconded," snapped Karate Kid.  
  
"Thirded" said Saturn Girl.  
  
"Carried," barked Lyle, rising. "We leave at 1200 hours -- five  
minutes from now -- and fly to the coast. Brainy has already signaled   
ahead for our deep-sea craft to be ready."  
  
Five minutes later, the six Legionnaires took a special flying shuttle  
to the islands of Hawaii. From there, they boarded their special sea craft  
and took off -- straight down.  
  
Looking like some strange denizen of the deep, their special   
bathysphere plunged rapidly, passing through the "milk" zone of fading  
sunlight at three thousand feet, then dropping down into the lightless pit  
of stygian darkness that extended another six miles down.  
  
On the top of the hull, a powerful swinging searchlight stabbed  
through the inky waters, lighting up uneartly species of deep-sea fish  
that inhabited this sunless realm.As they looked out the craft's windows,  
they saw life forms incredibly existing at every depth.  
  
"Spooky," said the tiny voice of Violet with a shiver, looking out.  
"Like another world."  
  
"The pressure down here is about five tons per square inch,"   
estimated Brainiac 5.  
  
"Almost enough to crush Gim's thick skull," commented Sun Boy.  
  
"You've got the bends," sniffed Violet, "in your brains."  
  
"Aw, you and Colossal Boy are ganging up on me with the  
quips," complained Sun Boy. "It's hardly fair -- for you two."  
  
"Approaching sea-bottom zero," announced Brainiac 5 tensely at  
the controls. "We're coming down over the spot where Dream Girl said  
Tazz's lair should be."  
  
"I'm just surprised that babe could rattle off those coordinate  
numbers -- from a dream nevertheless," said Sun Boy.  
  
Brainy said, "I'm turning out all lights, outer and inner."  
  
A click, and oppressing darkness struck them like a blow.  
  
"Eyes peeled below, everyone," ordered Invisible Kid. A faint  
fluorescent glow indicated the outline of the observation window in the  
floor, allowing them to grope their way to its edge and peer down.  
Violet had the best view, she just stood in the middle of the window.  
  
"Why don't we just use sensors to determine if there's anything  
here"? asked Ferro Lad.  
  
'Because," explained Brainiac 5, "our sensors would send out a  
signal that Tazz might be able intercept, thus warning him that someone  
is coming."  
  
"Eek!" cried Violet suddenly. "A glowing tentacle of giant size."  
  
And at that moment, as something huge wrapped itself around their  
craft with the squish of suction cups against the hull, they were thrown off  
their seats and feet.  
  
"A giant kraken!" shouted Brainy. "The deep-sea squid with tentacles  
a hundred feet long."  
  
Brainiac 5 had clung to his seat at the controls. Now he pressed a  
button. Lightning flashes sizzled through the water outside. Almost instantly,  
the tentacles grip unwound from the craft, and something thrashed wildly  
in the water and departed, leaving a wake of faintly phosphorescent bubbles.  
  
"I jolted him with five megavolts," said Brainy drily.  
  
Ferro Lad said, "I guess Mr. Squeezer decided he had an   
appointment elsewhere. "I only hope that electrical display didn't warn  
Tazz of our coming."  
  
Brainiac 5 inched the craft down now, as they all resumed the   
downward watch. A faint glow below gradually brightened and grew  
bigger, until it resolved itself into a huge lighted structure.  
  
"A lighted and aerated dome," breathed Invisible Kid. "Tazz's sea-  
bottom hideout seventy thousands fathoms deep. How did he conjure it  
down here? Talk about superscience ..." His voice trailed away in awed  
amazement.  
  
"Does Tazz," wondered Ferro Lad more practically, "have any  
detection or alarm system for approaching craft?"  
  
The answer came suddenly with sizzling rays spangling from the  
dome's apex, stabbing through the water toward their craft.  
  
"Hard aport," called out Brainy. "Hang on, everybody."  
  
They barely had time to grab hand-hold bars on the walls before  
the diving ship slammed sideways, swift as a leaping greyhound. Brainiac  
5 twisted and turned in the waters, but the rays followed relentlessly.  
  
Suddenly the craft dived straight down.  
  
"I'm aiming for a sea-bottom landing," Brainy informed them  
tensely, "where we may be out of range of the rays."  
  
Halting their downward plunge skillfully, Brainiac 5 brought the  
ship to a curving touchdown in watery ooze. The rays stabbed a dozen   
feet above them, but no closer.  
  
"The curvature of the dome itself cuts off any directline beam  
toward its base," explained Invisible Kid. "And look -- a hatch door  
leading into the dome! It must be for Tazz's own use, to leave the dome  
in a mobile craft. Therefore it must have automatic open-and-close  
controls for him to re-enter."  
  
"I'm sure he doesn't get out and use a key," quipped Sun Boy.  
  
Brainiac 5 guided their craft straight toward the door. When  
within ten feet, some electrosensor trigger was set off and a huge round  
hatch swung open. Water rushed into an inner chamber, pulling their  
craft with it. Then the outer hatch silently closed, and the whine of a high-  
powered pump was heard, emptying the chamber. Finally, an inner hatch-  
way opened into the dome itself and its artificial atmosphere.  
  
"Everybody out!" barked Lyle. "If Tazz is in a different part of  
this huge dome, he won't reach here in time to stop us rushing in. And then,  
if luck is with us, we can stalk him through the dome. Come on."  
  
The six Legionnaires dashed through the inner hatch into the  
lighted dome, upheld by massive crossbeams that defied the almost  
unbelievable crushing presure at seabottom. It was all mind-staggering  
40th century technology.  
  
After a swift glance around, surveying details, Invisible Kid gave  
instructions. "Catwalks and stairways all seem to lead to a master contol  
chamber at the apex of the dome, where Tazz probably is holed up.  
We'll scatter now. Sun Boy, the next catwalk left. Ferro Lad, the right  
one. Brainy and I will go up the closest one. As for Colossal Boy and  
Violet ..."  
  
"No need to tell us," shrilled a thin voice from the shrinking girl.  
"We'll be waiting around here to do our bit when we see a chance."  
  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	15. Traps Of Death

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 15 - TRAPS OF DEATH  
  
  
The amplified voice of Tazz suddenly boomed from the apex.  
  
"Attention! I constantly underestimate you Legionnaires. I did not  
think you would ever locate my undersea hideout in the first place, nor that  
if you did find it, you would cleverly invade it through my own automatic  
hatchway. So much is to your credit."  
  
Then his voice changed, ominous with threat.  
  
"But now you will find yourselves facing the Legionnaire dooms,  
picking you off one by one. Come after me ... if you dare."  
  
"We dare," was Invisible Kid's answer at the bottom of his catwalk  
stairway. It was almost a whisper. When he saw that Sun Boy and Ferro Lad  
had gained their catwalks, he waved a signal and all four began racing up the  
winding stairways that hung suspended from the ceiling of the dome.  
  
They didn't dare try flying in the dome with its many crossbeams   
and guy wires, affording them too little maneuvering room. It was about  
as tough as a Legion Flight Ring obstacle course. But they didn't want to  
take the chance of Tazz hitting them with one of his many rays.   
  
Being the most agile of the four, Invisible Kid went up the fastest,  
keeping a wary eye on the globular chamber at the dome's apex. He jerked  
back with hair-trigger reflexes as a blast-beam knifed down past his ear.  
Brainiac 5 caught up with him and turned on his protective force-field.  
  
Tazz's aim was handicapped, however, Brainy knew. He did not dare  
aim too close to the stairway itself, or disintegrating metal would bring about  
collapse. And he could not afford to weaken any part of his bracing system,  
for the macro-pressured water outside would then crush the dome as flat as  
a pancake in horrendous seconds.  
  
Lyle made it harder for Tazz -- he turned invisible.  
  
Tazz would have to try to pick them off with sideswiping shots from  
strategic angles. Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 took care to keep some portion   
of the metal catwalk-stairs between himself and the apex chamber.  
  
But why had Tazz been so confident they would meet Legionnaire  
dooms?  
  
Booby traps!  
  
As the thought sprang into Lyle's mind, he tensed, slowing their  
upward race. Now all his senses taunted to keen alertness. "Brainy, watch  
out for booby traps," he warned.  
  
Brainiac 5, in turn, alerted Sun Boy and Ferro Lad, via their   
comm-link.  
  
The short hairs on the back of Invisible Kid's neck bristled in  
instinctive warning. Something did not look right ahead. What was it?  
Then he noticed the slightly dull sheen of one step ahead of him, whereas  
the rest were shiny polished metal.  
  
Aha! One false step on that false step -- Lyle could not avoid  
the play of words in his thoughts -- and Brainy and him would be goners  
in some unknown way. "Hold it, Brainy," he said. Invisible Kid wanted to  
set the trap off to make Tazz think it had worked, thus putting him off  
guard.  
  
Brainiac 5 saw Lyle become visible once again and point to the  
false stair. Brainy immediately knew what it was supposed to be. He  
extended his force-field to surround the both of them and motioned  
for Invisible Kid to walk ahead. When they touched the bogus step, it  
exploded with just enough force to kill them, yet not enough to damage  
the stairway itself.  
  
At the loud report, Sun Boy and Ferro Lad glanced that way across  
the dome through the latticed structure of the triple stairways. Lyle reported  
to them through the comm-link: "Watch out for booby traps, guys."  
  
Ferro Lad tensed and turned on his power that made him   
invulnerable. He wondered what lay ahead for him. Tazz would be too  
clever to repeat booby traps, knowing that one sprung would tip off the  
presence of the others. He looked closely at everything as he moved ahead.  
  
Then he saw it, a large, poised mallet fastened to the railing, which  
could easily brain someone. If you weren't looking for it, you could've easily  
missed it. He looked at the steps. One seemed duller than the others. He bent  
down and pressed the stair with his hand, and the giant club descended  
viciously -- on empty air. It went right over Ferro Lad's head. Ferro Lad  
continued on.  
  
Sun Boy, climbing the third stairway, peered ahead warily, looking  
for the unknown. Nothing seemed amiss. About to step ahead, a high-  
pitched voice shrilled in his ear: "Stop, Dirk! That step ahead is triggered  
with death."  
  
Sun Boy looked at it more closely. He then aimed a blast of his  
heat to the one stair that looked duller the others. A moment later, a dozen  
long recessed needles sprang upward, their points tinted blue with poison.  
They would have pierced upward through Dirk's boots into his feet.  
  
Flying between the spikes safely, Shrinking Violet then swung  
up past Sun Boy's face. "That was close."  
  
"Thanks, Vi," Sun Boy managed to say, wiping his brow. "You  
realize, now, that you had the privilege of saving my life," he said banteringly,  
regaining his composure.  
  
"Oh, lucky, lucky me!" buzzed Violet. "But I condemmed myself to  
hearing your cracks for weeks and years ahead, unlucky me."  
  
"Why do you admire my witticisms so much, Violet? I must say  
something right all the time." Sun Boy grinned, then raced upward again.  
  
Now all four Legionnaires -- Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5, Ferro Lad,  
and Sun Boy -- met at the top landing and converged on Tazz's globular  
chamber. "Hsst," said Lyle, crouching beside the door. "You rush in first,  
Ferro Lad. Then Sun Boy can blind him with bright light. Then Ferro you  
pick up Tazz, force-shield and all, and toss him around the room.  
  
Invisible Kid nodded his head for the signal and Ferro Lad burst  
through the door without opening it. Andrew went to one side of the room  
and covered his eyes. Sun Boy sprang in. Tazz turned in amazement. "But  
my booby traps ... the signal lights said they went off!"  
  
"So we're ghosts," was Sun Boy's answer and he let loose with an  
intense glow of brilliant light that blinded Tazz. Ferro Lad rushed over and   
with his super-strength picked Tazz along with his force-shield up and threw   
him into a wall. The jolt was so great and unexpected that Tazz's hand   
accidently hit the control button for his force-field and turned it off.   
  
Brainy and Invisible Kid entered the room next and the Legion's  
top scientist could immediately see that Tazz was now unprotected.  
  
Still blinded, Tazz had no idea he was now vulnerable. Brainy  
yelled to Ferro Lad, "Grab him! He's unprotected!"  
  
Though he still couldn't see, Tazz leaped up like a madman, leaned  
his shoulder back and closed a big switch on the wall. A whining drone like  
the sound of bagpipes filled the air, and suddenly Ferro Lad stopped in mid-  
stride.  
  
Sun Boy, who was preparing to blast Tazz with heat in alarm, froze  
with his arm half-cocked. Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 also stood frozen  
as if petrified.  
  
"My best booby trap," leered Tazz triumphantly. His sight now  
coming back, allowing him to point at the projector extending from the  
wall and radiating the skirling beams. "I know you can hear me, though  
you are immobilized. This is my time-stopping ray. Briefly, that ray stops  
time for any object or person it strikes. Since time is not ticking for you,  
you cannot make your follow-up move of the next second -- which never   
comes."  
  
He waved at a monitor screen that showed the magnified flying form   
of Shrinking Violet darting into the doorway. Violet was skirting around the   
time-ray. Tazz turned a dial.  
  
"A simple adjustment and the time-ray hits her too."  
  
Violet froze in mid-air.  
  
"The tiny female caught in the timeless trap," Tazz gloated. "But  
where is the Colossal Oaf?"  
  
Colossal Boy's mighty ten-foot form came crashing through the  
side wall, out of range of the time-ray. Picking up a huge chunk of cement,  
Gim hurled it at the time-ray projector, smashing it to bits.  
  
The frozen figures came alive and continued where they had left  
off. Ferro Lad jumped on Tazz and flung him against the wall. Seeing   
Andrew had things under control, the rest of the Legionnaires relaxed.  
  
"It looks as if one throw into the wall by Ferro Lad knocked him  
out cold," crowed Sun Boy -- too soon.  
  
For the sagging figure opened its eyes and spoke to them. "You  
forget my human form is only a disguise for ..." His finger jabbed a belt-  
button and they watched in revulsion as they saw the transformation that  
only Ferro Lad and Brainiac 5 had witnessed before on Mount Everest.  
  
"... for my true form."  
  
The hideous monster with purple-blotched skin, green lips, blue  
hair, and fiery red eyes stood before them on his hooved feet, looking like  
a nightmare that had somehow become reality.  
  
"I can stand breathing your poisonous oxygenated air for a few  
minutes," the ghastly creature mouthed. "And in this form we have one  
elusive attribute, that of turning into intangible amorphous material."  
  
With that, the monster turned milky in color and formed a cloud of  
smoke that streamed out the door. Colossal Boy futilely tried to seize it, but  
he grasped nothing solid.  
  
Running out, they saw the smoke-villian pouring down through the  
dome without need of steps, then into the water-hatchway and into its own  
deep-sea vehicle parked next to that of the Legionnaires. Evidently changing  
inside to solid form, and back to human-like Tazz, his amplified voice came  
to them as they all raced down the stairway.  
  
"You have won a minor skirmish," he snarled, "driving me away from  
my dome. But you will never capture me when I vanish somewhere in your  
vast outside world, lost when I mingle among billions of people."  
  
The Legionnaires dashed up just as the inner door closed. On the  
other side, they knew, the sea hatch was filling with water as the outer hatch  
opened to let in the sea. Then Tazz could speed away in his deep-sea boat,  
with a long head-start on them before the hatchway could be put through its  
cycle again.  
  
Panting, Lyle called for a quick conference.  
  
"Let's size up the situation. Even though we didn't nab Tazz, what  
advantages did we gain? For one thing, we got control of this undersea hide-  
out of his. Will he have to come back for any reason?"  
  
"I think so," said Brainiac 5. "Up in his control room, I noticed  
another ray device that I think may be his time teleportation machine --  
his only way of returning to the future. If I'm right, he'll have to come back  
for that sooner or later -- or die when the world ends."  
  
"Good!" cried Invisible Kid. "Then we'll leave one guard here.  
Let's see ... how about Colossal Boy? He's equal to ten other men."  
  
"Okay," agreed the giant teen. "Just let that creep try to sneak back  
in and get past me."  
  
"The rest of us back in the deep-sea craft," waved Lyle, as the inner  
door opened again, drained of water. Soon after going through the egress  
process, they sped out through the outer hatch.  
  
Brainiac 5 turned on the long-range sensor, reading off measure-  
ments from its return signals. "Just as I thought," he muttered. "Tazz has a  
super-speed boat and is already surfacing."  
  
Invisible Kid looked around slowly, haggardly. "That means to find  
him we'll have to search the world."  
  
"Every city, town and hamlet? gasped Violet. "Among billions and   
billions of people?"  
  
"Talk about a needle lost in a haystack," said Sun Boy bleakly --  
"this is like trying to find one grain of sand lost on a beach. It's hopeless."  
  
"Not the way we're going to do it," spoke up Brainy. "We're  
going to hunt him with sensors. I'll show you what I mean back at the  
clubhouse."  
  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	16. The Hunt For The Villian

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 16 - THE HUNT FOR THE VILLIAN  
  
  
It was the next day and they were back at the Legion clubhouse,  
using equipment in Brainiac 5's laboratory. There were four monitor screens  
attended by four Legionnaires at present. The monitors were connected to   
a huge computer that in itself was connected to satellites in space.  
  
"The basic principle is simple," explained Brainiac 5. "There are four  
synchronous satellites around the world. What we are doing is utilizing a 'spy-  
ray,' you might call it."  
  
He patted an electronic box that fed signals into the system.  
  
"This invention of mine works on the principle that each person on  
Earth has his own special brain-wave pattern, as distinctively different as  
one person's fingerprints are from other people's prints. Now, we have a  
database of all the different types of brain waves from people who hail from  
Earth, as well as members of the United Planets. For example, my brain-  
wave pattern is different from an Earth human because I am from the planet  
Colu. Now Tazz is from a planet that is not in the database. He can't disguise  
his brain-wave. So, his brain-wave should stand out like the well-known  
sore thumb from the characteristic patterns of minds in the database."  
  
Brainy pushed a function button on a computer keyboard and an  
image flashed on a large monitor screen on the wall of the lab. It appeared  
to be a chart of various human brain-wave patterns that were in flowing  
waves, differing minutely in the height of the curves, their closeness together,  
and the dips or peaks of the full string.  
  
"Tazz's brain waves will be totally different than anything in our  
database," said Brainy. "I don't know what they'll look like, but if some-  
thing comes up just watch for any freakish distorted pattern and we'll have  
Tazz nailed down, no matter where he's hiding. Each of you is attuned to a  
separate syncom satellite which covers a different broad region of Earth.  
The four of you will cover the world with our monitor screens."  
  
"Every square inch, Braino?" asked Matter-Eater Lad in wonder.  
  
"Yes," replied Brainiac 5. "The computer does most of the work and  
will only alert you if it spots something odd. This spy-ray system could be   
tuned, if we wished, to finding one blue microbe out of a trillion red ones.  
Take my word for it that as it scans the world, every person's brain wave  
in the area that its looking at will be registered on your screen. The computer  
will sort out any number of patterns, even millions at the same time."  
  
"I don't understand a word of it," confessed Sun Boy. "You mean I  
could tune in my own mind and see a Sun Boy brain pattern?"  
  
"No, you'd just get a blank," said Shrinking Violet slyly. "He said a  
BRAIN pattern."  
  
"Then take Colossal Boy," retaliated Sun Boy. "I understand when  
he grows to giant size, his brain reduces to ant size."  
  
"Oh, you made me think of Big Gim standing guard all alone at the  
sea bottom, I miss him so."  
  
"Hah. That's like missing the Rigelian Fever --" Dirk stopped, seeing  
the girl was looking sad. "Sorry, Vi. I guess I was hitting below the belt."  
  
"Let's get to work!" barked Invisible Kid, turning to his own monitor  
screen.  
  
"It will be a hard job," warned Brainiac 5. "When the computer alerts  
you of an odd brain pattern, just punch it up and look at it. If in doubt, just call  
me."  
  
Silence fell as each of them concentrated on their computer screens,  
watching the lightning fast changing patterns of brain waves that sprayed onto  
the screen constantly. Could they comb the world this way, picking one alien  
brain wave out of all the billions of people on Earth?  
  
  
***  
  
  
It was night and cool in the bedroom. Jan Arrah held Nura Nal. For  
a few minutes of peace, Jan floated in the soft darkness of ecstasy, without  
thought, without memory, and -- most importantly -- without horror or rage.  
Conscious only of sensation, he heard his breathing and Nura's breathing in  
one sound, as if the darkness outside of him and the darkness within breathed  
in one rhythm.  
  
The sensation flowered and became a mosaic of perceptions: the  
warmth of Nura's thigh against his face, the throb of her femoral artery, the  
caress of her hand on his leg.   
  
Sensations without thought. Sensations defining the form of his body,  
where his body touched Nura, where his body touched the wadded and  
tangled sheets of the bed. For minutes, he existed only as a form defined  
by sensations.  
  
Then he remembered their pleasure. The sweatslick flesh of Nura's  
thighs, his fingers clawing into her flesh, her muscles snapping taut like steel  
cables as she spasmed in ecstasy, her cries and gasps, his breathing locked  
with hers. The rhythm and tempo had intoxicated them, her arms gripping  
him, pulling him against her as if urging him to plunge deeper into the center  
of herself, her hands jerking him against her, and then his climax.  
  
Her tongue touched him again, the spin of her tongue stopping his  
memories. He groaned and moved in the bed. "Oh .. no. Can't"  
  
"Let's make it number five."  
  
"Five?"  
  
"Four so far."  
  
"Impossible ..."  
  
"What?"  
  
"This is amazing."  
  
"We're just decharging from our missions."  
  
Jan thought back to what had occurred in the Antarctic. He felt his  
identity returning, the fears and hatreds and horrible, shuddering memories  
rushing into the pleasure-drained void of his mind, like a flight of bats crowding  
through the eye sockets of a skull.  
  
"Please don't talk," he requested.  
  
"Who wants to talk?" she giggled. Her legs circled him. She locked  
her ankles behind him. He smelled the intoxicating fragrance of her platinum-  
hair. The bed began to rock. Once again he started to slam into her.  
  
Laughing, she responded to his violence with a slow, sensuous  
writhing of her hips. But after a minute of his body slamming her, she  
whispered, "Easy. Easy. Slow down. Easy."  
  
He continued slamming her. She told him, "Stop it. Slow down,  
you're hurting me."  
  
Grabbing her hips in his hands, he continued, not seeking to give  
or gain but only desperately wanting unconsciousness.  
  
Nura defended herself. Grasping his head in both hands, she pressed  
her sharp thumbnails against his closed eyes. She put only slight pressure  
against the eyelids as she warned him, "Stop now!"  
  
Jan threw himself aside, twisting his face away from the knives of  
her thumbnails, reflexively straightarming Nura away to a safe distance. His  
breath came in gasps as he leaned against the headboard.  
  
"What's wrong? What's going on with you?" Nura said. "One minute  
you're a lover and the next, you're ... you're berserk."  
  
"Nothing. I just got too rough. I'm sorry."  
  
"No, Jan. I don't mean just now. I mean all night. This afternoon.  
You're here, then you're not. You're someplace else. You see things. Your  
face goes hard, like you're ready to attack something. Someone."  
  
"Me? Do that?" He forced a laugh.  
  
"Sometimes you are a scary guy," she said.  
  
Jan laughed at the understatement. Some of his teammates --  
especially Matter-Eater Lad and Bouncing Boy -- also thought of him  
as a scary guy.  
  
"You are five different kinds of scary, scary dude" to quote Tenzil.  
  
"I am," he finally told her, laughing as if he joked. "I am a very scary  
guy. I even scare myself."  
  
"You may be, but you're decent first. A good guy. You're easy to like.  
I liked you ever since the day we met. I ever tell you that?" Nura said.  
  
"What? You don't know anything about me. Not who I am or  
was --"  
  
"Yes, I do. I've read your Legion file numerous times. I know all  
about you," she told him. Nura knew Jan was always one of the most powerful   
members of the Legion, and one of the most withdrawn. His mental discipline,   
which guarded him from accidentally killing people with a stray thought,   
allowed few people to get close to him. Nura had always wanted to know   
what really made him tick.  
  
"Is that why you came on to me on the planet ...?"  
  
"Oh, puuleeeze!" she laughed. "I come on to all the guys, you know  
that!"  
  
Jan laughed. "I feel like what the people on Earth once called 'a  
mail order bride.' Dude by dossier."  
  
"Yes," she said. "I've read about all the operations and missions  
that you've been on. Though there wasn't much on the personal stuff. Nothing  
about --"  
  
"Oh. Then you don't know."  
  
"I can guess. I've heard a little of what happened to you."  
  
Jan rolled in the bed and held her, "My past has been very extreme."  
  
"Was it? Tell me. I only heard the stories."  
  
Jan sat up again. He reached out for a glass of water beside the  
bed..  
  
Nura's hand massaged his chest and shoulder. Her fingers traced  
the rope-like scar on his side. Her fingers found other scars that marked his  
body.  
  
"You don't get scars like these working in an office."  
  
"I'm a Legionnaire," he said proudly. "You can get hurt when some  
would-be world-dominator throws you against a wall."  
  
She traced what looked like a recent-moon welt with a finger.  
"You get this in Antarctica?"  
  
"Playing in the snow. I fell and --"  
  
"N'ass."  
  
"Really, I fell down on --"  
  
"Jan," she interrupted. "You joke and you laugh. But it isn't funny  
to see you. You're haunted. It's like you've got different people moving  
inside of you. What happened to you?"  
  
"You don't want to know," he said as he gulped down some more  
water.  
  
"Does it have anything to do with what happened to Trom?"  
  
"You don't want to know."  
  
"I'm a Legionnaire just like you, Jan! I'm willing to risk my life  
for you and the others. But I want to know the people I'm taking that  
risk for. I --"  
  
"Oh, God, no ..." Jan groaned. He left Nura's bed, and paced the  
room. "Why are you doing this?"  
  
A moment later, he turned to her and began speaking rapidly, "I'll  
tell you this ... Don't put any credits in the bank. Don't buy life insurance,  
even though Imra says we can't get any anyway, buy the best clothes, the  
best shoes. Buy anything that'll give you a laugh."  
  
"It's dangerous. Is that what you're telling me? Being a Legionnaire  
is dangerous? Do you want to protect me? You think I will die?"  
  
"Getting killed isn't it ..." Jan pointed to his right eye. "It's what you  
see. After that, dying, thinking about dying isn't the same. You recognize  
the advantages of being dead. No memories. No thinking --"  
  
"What happened to you, Jan?!"  
  
"You really want to know? The truth?"  
  
"Yes!" she screamed.  
  
Jan stood naked in the darkness. He looked at the walls and  
furniture trying to decide what to tell her.  
  
He finally calmed down and sat on the edge of the bed. And  
Element Lad and Dream Girl talked until sunrise.  
  
Nura listened to all the horror and inhumanity and suffering he had  
felt.  
  
She listened to how Jan explained that the people who had once been  
on his homeworld had the ability to create as much wealth as they could possibly   
want with their powers. But that the Trommites had a disdain for wealth and   
instead used their powers to create a highly spiritual society. They always had  
refused requests and demands to use their powers for the material benefit   
of others, and so it was when Roxxas the Butcher made such a demand. Roxxas,   
who apparently did not fully understand the small size of Trom's population,   
killed everyone ... except Jan, who was on a ship in space at the time.  
  
"What do you think?" Jan concluded. "Is this what you want to do  
with your life?"  
  
"People all over the galaxy are alive because of us, right?"  
  
"Yeah, I think about that a lot. That's what makes being a Legionnaire  
worth it."  
  
"Do you think it would be any different for me? I've seen some of  
what you've seen, but I couldn't do anything about it. I may not have the  
type of power you have ... but you don't have to dream some of the night-  
mares that I do, either. But the Legion makes a difference. What greater  
opportunity could I hope for?"  
  
He told her, "The villians -- there's always more. We defeat one,  
a hundred come. We defeat the hundred, and Mordru raises another army.  
There's no end to the killing and suffering."  
  
"And if we didn't fight?" she asked.  
  
"The likes of Tazz and Mordru conquer the universe," he answered.  
  
"Then we fight ..."  
  
Jan nodded. He put his arms around Nura and held her, the rise   
and fall of her chest soft against his muscles. He tasted the sweat-salt in  
her hair and pushed a few strands away from her beautiful face. He closed  
his eyes and wished he knew the future. But he did not, could not and  
would not even ask Dream Girl if she knew when or if some kind of  
violence would end his life.  
  
When he died, he died. But now, in this moment of life and pleasure,  
he held a girl he deeply cared about.  
  
  
***  
  
  
Later that morning, Invisible Kid read the latest news from his  
omnicon. And the news was grim. In fact, the news was alarming. He  
just read bits and pieces. "Earth undergoing fantastic change ... Ocean  
level up five feet ... Dikes in European sector threatened ... More volcanoes  
erupting in the Pacific region ... Violent high-altitude wind disrupting air  
travel ... Giant comet plunging toward Earth on possible collision course."  
  
"The four Earth dooms of Tazz," muttered Saturn Girl. "Building up  
to their cataclysmic finale -- only three days away now. And we can't locate  
Tazz. I've tried. We've tried and nothing seems to work."  
  
Five hours later, the Legionnaires in Brainiac 5's lab had nearly  
covered the entire world with his brain-wave scanner. Invisible Kid was  
frowning worriedly. "With only a few patches of Earth left to scan, is it  
possible that ..." His voice trailed away as he punched the keys on the  
computer keyboard.  
  
After a while, all the Legionnaires in the lab looked away from the  
computer screens and stared at one another, dumbfounded.  
  
Star Boy finally said it aloud: "Tazz is nowhere on Earth. Or else  
he devised some way of hiding and eluding the spy-ray."  
  
"Impossible," said Brainiac 5. "Impossible, I tell you! This spy-  
ray works on the telepathic principle, and nothing can stop telepathic  
waves from coming through."  
  
With uncharacteristic anger, Brainy punched the keys on his  
keyboard hard in frustration. His monitor showed a single brain-wave  
pattern ribboning across the screen. "There's the brain wave of Colossal   
Boy, seven and a half miles deep under countless tons of sea water. The   
deepest mine shaft ... the heart of a solid stone mountain ... the inside of   
a nuclear reactor -- none of those could prevent Tazz's brain waves from   
being radiated and picked up by the spy-ray."  
  
Brainac 5 stared at the screen, trying to think up another angle.  
"Tazz is somewhere on Earth -- and yet he isn't. It's incredible, inexplicable,  
inconceivable."  
  
"Translation -- nutty," said Star Boy. "Too bad, Brainy, but your  
gizmo didn't work."  
  
"Don't blame Brainy," defended Invisible Kid. "If Tazz is still on   
Earth, he must have picked out some clever hiding place we never   
suspected ... wherever that could be."  
  
Brainiac 5 suddenly jumped up. "Wait ... think once. Where is the  
one place on Earth we would least expect him to be? The last place we  
would think of?"  
  
"Huh?" said Matter-Eater Lad blankly.  
  
Brainy turned and ran from the main lab. He then began looking  
through room after room in another section of the clubhouse complex  
where he had set up his series of labs and science workshops. Most of  
the labs were dark and unoccupied. With his handheld sensor and  
detector on, Brainiac 5 paused outside one closed door on sub level  
one that was labeled: SCIENCE HALL. It was used only by Brainiac 5  
himself for top-priority science jobs, containing the finest and most prized  
tools of research. A lot of time travel research was carried out in this room.  
  
Brainy looked at the sensor in his hand. It was picking up a  
telltale metabolic warmth of a living form beyond the door. The door  
was locked. He went down the hall to an intercom communicator on  
the wall. He punched the button, "Intruder alert! Science Hall!" he said.  
  
Within moments, nearly a dozen Legionnaires had joined him outside  
the door to the Science Hall.  
  
"What do we do?" asked Matter-Eater Lad.  
  
"This!" replied Ferro Lad as he rammed through the door.  
  
Within the room, a man with frosty eyes turned from the workbench.  
  
"Tazz!" screeched Tenzil. "You were here all the time in the Legion  
clubhouse, the one place we didn't think of!"  
  
"Naturally," mocked the villian. "It was elementary to outwit you dull-  
brained humans."  
  
The other Legionnaires had crowded into the room, and they stared  
open-mouthed.  
  
"How do you like that?" groaned Princess Projectra. "We look for him  
all over the world ... in places twelve thousand miles away. Yet, all the while he  
was practically sitting in our laps. Well, we've got him now."  
  
"Oh, no you don't, Regal One," said Tazz cooly. "In the past week  
while hiding here, I took the liberty of utilizing the lab's rather crude -- by my  
standards -- equipment. I constructed two 40th century devices. Only the first   
need concern you now ..."  
  
"Grab him, quick," yelled Invisible Kid, and all the Legionnaires rushed  
forward.  
  
But they all seized empty air, as the leering Tazz turned transparent.  
They could now see the new kind of belt he wore, which glowed with an  
eerie blue luminescence.  
  
"A fourth-dimensional transporter," came the fading voice of Tazz.  
"It allows me to slip through the fourth dimension and whisk anywhere on  
Earth in the wink of an eye. In a moment, I'll be back in my undersea   
dome .. without the necessity of going past your Colossal Oaf guard at  
the sea-hatch door. I'll just go through the walls."  
  
His form faded to nothingness with a last derisive laugh.  
  
"Gim," moaned Violet. "He'll be in danger, not knowing that Tazz  
will materialize out of thin air, behind his back ..."  
  
"Tinya!" cried Invisible Kid.  
  
"Lyle, I can go into the fourth dimension," Phantom Girl explained, "but   
I don't have a transporter like he described. I can try to follow him, if you  
want."  
  
He grabbed Phantom Girl's arm. "Under no circumstances try to  
take on Tazz alone by yourself. Just follow him and, if need be, warn Gim.  
We'll get a team there as soon as possible."  
  
She nodded in understanding and faded out.  
  
  
***  
  
  
Dozing, but ready to awaken at the slightest noise outside the sea-hatch  
door, Colossal Boy awoke uneasily. He had the feeling that something was  
wrong ... that someone was in the dome with him.  
  
"Impossible," he told himself. "Now don't lose your marbles over the  
dead silence and loneliness. You've got too many people to disgrace -- above  
all, yourself . Keep hold of your nerves, big guy ..."  
  
"Colossal Fool!" rang out an insulting voice. "Come up here."  
  
Colossal Boy sat up so violently that he crashed his head against a low  
crossbeam.  
  
"Tazz!" he gasped dizzily. "His voice came from the apex room!"  
  
Shaking off his dizziness, Colossal Boy raced up the nearest stairway,  
moving faster than anybody one-tenth of his weight could. Bursting into the  
apex chamber, he faced the grinning villian.  
  
"How did you get in?" roared Gim Allon, his mind reeling. "I sat  
before the sea hatch day and night ..."  
  
"What good did that do?" cackled Tazz, "when I oozed in through  
the wall? Now listen to this story of where I was hiding for a week -- It'll  
kill you!"  
  
It very nearly did. Colossal Boy felt as horribly shocked as the  
other Legionnaires had been when they realized how the villian had duped  
them with such diabolic cunning. But Gim had noticed no force-field aura  
around Tazz ... and he now strode forward heavily, huge hands outstretched.  
"Well! He who laughs last, laughs last, I always say. I'm going to grab you  
and hold onto you for the next forty-five hours, if I have to, or until the   
others get here ... Uh?"  
  
Colossal Boy had stopped in mid-stride. Tazz had whipped a head-  
band around his forehead, to which was attached a concave-like mirror that  
shone a violet-green glow into Gim's eyes. At the same time, Tazz ordered:  
"Stop, Colossal Boy. You are under my mental control."  
  
Sweating and straining, Colossal Boy tried to fight the overwhelming  
hypnotic force that beat at his brain. But then his body relaxed into a slump-  
shouldered sag, eyes blank, face wooden. Like a zombie, he intoned,"It will  
be done as you command master."  
  
"Good," Tazz muttered, a murderous look in his eyes. "When the  
other Legionnaires arrive, they will find the biggest and one of the strongest  
Legionnaires blocking their way, opposing them, fighting them. What will  
you do to them, Colossal Boy?"  
  
"I'll wade into them before they know what is happening," recited  
Gim, following unvoiced telepathic suggestions radiated by Tazz. The giant  
teen's eyes blazed fiercely. "And then ... I'll kill them!"  
  
"That is right, Colossal Boy," voiced Tazz in sinister glee. "Now we  
will wait for your friends to enter my trap."  
  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	17. Legionnaire Vs Legionnaire

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 17 - LEGIONNAIRE VS. LEGIONNAIRE  
  
  
It wasn't long after Tazz escaped from the Legion clubhouse that  
a Mark III cruiser flew to Hawaii and five Legionnaires were making another  
deep-sea dive. Invisible Kid was notified while en route by Karate Kid in the  
Communications Room that Phantom Girl was unable to track Tazz in the  
fourth dimension. The five Legionnaires -- Invisible Kid, Brainiac 5, Sun Boy,  
Shrinking Violet and Ultra Boy -- approached the sea-hatch door of the dome,  
wary of blast-rays that did not blaze forth.  
  
"That' s funny," said the Legion's leader uneasily. "If Tazz is back in  
control of the dome, having somehow taken Colossal Boy prisoner, why  
wouldn't he fire his rays at us? He wants us to come in. That spells -- and  
smells like -- a trap."  
  
"We'll be ready for anything," Ultra Boy said grimly.  
  
But they were scarcely prepared for the stunning surprise awaiting   
them ... being confronted by the huge menacing figure of Colossal Boy when  
they stepped inside the sea hatch into the dome. Behind Gim stood Tazz.  
  
"Ah, meet my bodyguard," Tazz announced gloatingly, "under my  
electro-hypnotic control ... the other device I made in your lab. Go after  
them, Colossal Boy."  
  
The giant sprang among them, a human hurricane in action. One  
mighty blow of his hand flung Sun Boy ten yards. His other balled fist   
cracked against Invisible Kid's chin and sent him thudding against the  
wall. One huge boot swung up and propelled Ultra Boy away like a ball  
and he tumbled between two crossbeams and wedged fast. Luckily, he  
had his invulnerability turned on.  
  
Only Violet and Brainiac 5, who had turned on his force-field, had  
escaped the giant's fury. Violet swiftly shrank to insect size and was flying  
around frantically.  
  
She listened in horror at what came next, while three Legionnaires  
lay out cold, or too dazed to move.  
  
"Finish them off, Colossal Boy," ordered Tazz. "Pick up that iron  
club and see that nothing recognizable remains of them. Go ... do as I say."  
  
But Colossal Boy was hesitating, a bewildered look on his face,  
like that of someone coming out of a dream. "But they ... my friends," he  
said brokenly. "Won't ... can't harm them."  
  
"Hmm, I see you need another dose of my hypno-ray," snapped  
Tazz. "Evidently your Legionnaire minds are so strongly loyal to one another  
that it takes repeated hypnotic dosages to keep you under control. All  
right ..."  
  
While Brainy attended to the others, Violet helplessly watched Tazz  
shine his headband device at Colossal Boy, who again subsided into a mind-  
less slave with slack jaws and transfixed stare. In a trance, at Tazz's   
repeated command, the mighty teen picked up a huge spiked iron club  
that lay ready and strode toward the nearest limp Legionnaire.  
  
But the delay, while Colossal Boy was being re-hypnotized, had  
given the three Legionnaires a chance to come to, their senses swimming  
back. So when Gim's murderous club swung down at Invisible Kid, Lyle  
sprang away, gasping in horror at the first sight his eyes had seen after  
opening.  
  
"Colossal Boy is berserk!" yelled Lyle as he turned invisible. With  
the help of Brainiac 5, Sun Boy began to stir and Ultra Boy was extricating  
himself out of the wall. "Run for it. Hide in the dome somewhere till we can  
figure out what to do," ordered Invisible Kid.  
  
There was no chance to gain the sea hatch and their deep-sea boat.  
Their only chance was somehow to survive within the dome itself, stalked by  
a mad giant. Lyle reappeared and gave Brainy a hand with Sun Boy and they   
yanked Dirk to his feet. Lyle patted Dirk's cheek a few times in an attempt to   
wake him up faster. Then the three of them rushed to where Ultra Boy was   
wedged.  
  
The three began pulling and tossing bits and pieces of steel away  
from Jo and helped pull him free. Then the four of them dashed away, just  
in time, before the lumbering Colossal Boy could get within club range of  
them.  
  
"This way," ordered Lyle, darting among a group of curved cross-  
beams, where they all converged. "Plenty of cover for us."  
  
Following Colossal Boy, Tazz shouted, "You won't escape this  
dome alive, Legionnaires. You're only prolonging the inevitable. Still, maybe  
it's better this way. Through Colossal Boy, I'll have the excitement of  
stalking and hunting you down, like wild animals for the kill. Thanks for  
giving me some fine sport."  
  
Violet shivered at the villian's fiendishness. But what could she do?  
With tears in her eyes, she flew onto Colossal Boy's shoulder.  
  
"I see you on my wrist-monitor, female," warned Tazz. "However  
you cannot stop us. After Colossal Boy takes care of your four friends, I'll  
send him after you with a fly-swatter," he laughed.  
  
Violet turned pale and darted into a crack, trembling. Would it all  
end in this tragic way, down in this isolated sea-dome?  
  
Colossal Boy went charging among the maze of converging cross-  
beams, but he was handicapped in swinging his club or in leaping, and his  
agile quarry easily evaded his blows.  
  
"Take a rest, Colossal Boy," ordered Tazz, hearing the giant wheeze  
from his exertions. "It's time for re-hypnosis anyway. Come back to me."  
  
This gave the four male Legionnaires a respite. Going into a huddle,  
they were joined by Violet, who settled on Invisible Kid's shoulder.  
  
"There's no protective aura around Tazz," stated Brainiac 5. "We  
destroyed his force-field belt last time, and he has had no time to make  
another. Therefore he's depending on Colossal Boy to shield him from us."  
  
"We'd be on more equal footing," observed Lyle, "if we could get  
that club out of Colossal Boy's hands. But that would be a miracle."  
  
"Just what I specialize in," boasted Sun Boy. "I'll do it with a little  
heat."  
  
"Good!" said Invisible Kid. "Then each of us will tackle Colossal  
Boy in turn -- Ultra Boy, Sun Boy, and myself, in that order -- trying to  
weaken or defeat him. If all three of us tried at once, we'd get in each other's  
way.  
  
"Y-you won't hurt him, will you?" begged Violet with a sob in her  
voice.  
  
Lyle shook his head reassuringly. "We'll only try to knock him out,  
Vi. But remember, the fate of Earth and of future worlds, is at stake. If we  
fail to defeat him" -- Invisible Kid's face went deadly grim -- "then we'll  
have to do whatever we can to win."  
  
The tiny girl in green on his shoulder went white with shock. But  
she said nothing against what plainly had to be. She flew off to find a  
quiet corner to relieve the pent-up emotion within her.  
  
"It'll break Violet's heart," murmurred Sun Boy, "if we have to use  
plan two against Colossal Boy. We can't let that happen ..."  
  
He stopped, flushing in embarrassment as the other three stared   
at him in surprise.  
  
"Look," he growled, "I don't mind beating her brains out in repartee.  
But I steer clear of her heart."  
  
"Amazing," said Ultra Boy to Lyle. "That guy is human after all."  
  
"Hardly the witty cynic he pretends to be," agreed Brainiac 5.  
  
"Okay, do your stuff now, Dirk," Lyle said and gave him a pat on  
his shoulder.  
  
Sun Boy crouched and crept away warily, peering over a beam  
and through a latticework cross support.  
  
Across the huge domed chamber, Tazz was ordering Colossal Boy  
back into action, striding forward with his huge spiked club. Noiselessly,  
Sun Boy moved in closer.  
  
Dirk took careful aim and projected a heat blast that struck the  
club and amazingly made half its length burn bright red.  
  
"That thing must be getting pretty hot for him to hold," whispered  
Sun Boy for the benefit of Lyle, Jo and Brainy behind him. "I just heated  
up the upper half, I didn't want to burn him."  
  
Dirk even took closer aim this next time and fired a heat blast near  
Colossal Boy's hand that was holding the club. This time Gim felt the heat  
and had to fling the club away. It still glowed bright red.  
  
"It should stay that way for a while," said Sun Boy. "Colossal Boy  
should've felt enough heat that would floor an elephant. However, he's not  
an elephant but a Legionnaire, so he'll recover."  
  
Pulling himself together, Colossal Boy strode forward, egged on by  
Tazz. "So they eliminated your club," Tazz said, "but you still have two giant  
clubs left -- your mighty hands. Smash the Legionnaires, Colossal Boy!"  
  
"This is it," breathed Ultra Boy, dashing out of hiding to tackle the  
teen-mountain. Jo flew forward with head down, slamming into Colossal  
Boy's chest like a human battering ram.  
  
Colossal Boy rocked back on his heels. That was all. Then he  
straddled his legs, waiting for more. Jo began leaping and hit Gim will  
blows from his fist, each one packing an incredible wallop.  
  
Ultra Boy aimed again and again, raining blows at Colossal Boy's  
face, chin, shoulders, mid-section, belt level. Gim's flesh quivered at each   
spot under the impact, but he was not knocked down, not even brought  
to one knee. He just withstood the storm passively, patiently. Ultra Boy   
didn't dare to use all his strength.  
  
"Tough?" muttered Jo to himself. "That big guy must be made of  
iron harder than Ferro Lad." Then he spotted something. "Hmm ..."  
  
Ultra Boy swooped around in the air and aimed his flash-vision  
downward where some explosive material detonated violently and blew  
a foot-wide crater in the concrete flooring of the dome, not more than   
ten feet in front of Colossal Boy."  
  
The concussion of the blast blew Colossal Boy off his feet and he  
tumbled backward into a crossbeam that bent under his weight.  
  
"Careful, Ultra Boy," Brainiac 5 yelled. "We don't want to bring  
this dome down on ourselves."  
  
By all odds, the titan should have passed out from the bruising  
shock. But astounded Ultra Boy saw Colossal Boy clamber to his feet,  
shake his head, then brandish his fists defiantly with all the massive power  
he had before.  
  
"Truly, this huge human is superhuman," said Tazz, himself impressed.  
Then his voice rang out mockingly, "Come on, you Legionnaires. Try to  
defeat this Legionnaire."  
  
Ultra Boy closed in desperately, trying to hover on even keel with  
Colossal Boy and hammer away at him with his steel-like hands.  
  
Colossal Boy slammed back, in turn. Ultra Boy had to keep  
switching his powers from super-strength to invulnerability. But even  
though he was invulnerable, he could still feel the thuds of Gim's  
hammering fists. And though Jo was, in effect, pulling his punches so not  
to do any real damage to Colossal Boy. Gim, however, was not pulling  
his punches and was hitting Ultra Boy with everything he had. And one  
of Colossal Boy's fantastic blows sent Jo flying again across the floor  
like a hockey puck, to end up against a steel post.  
  
As Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5 dashed up to Jo and helped him  
to his feet, Ultra Boy was a little groggy. "M-man, he hit me with every-  
thing he had."  
  
"Don't let it throw you," said Invisible Kid. "Remember, none of  
us has ever had an all-out fight with Colossal Boy, for keeps. We just never  
knew what a human powerhouse he was. Well, your turn, Sun Boy, good  
luck."  
  
"Uh, gee, thanks, leader man!" Sun Boy replied. "Look what he just   
did to Jo, here."  
  
Springing out into the open, with a clear shot toward Colossal Boy  
across the floor. Sun Boy let loose with blinding light to cause Gim's eyes  
to blur.  
  
Straight and true, Dirk then let loose with a heat blast toward  
Colossal Boy's feet, in essence to give Gim a hot foot. Like Ultra Boy,  
Sun Boy didn't dare hit Colossal Boy with everything he had.  
  
Watching from her aerial perch, Violet's blood froze. Flames  
shot up at Colossal Boy's feet, but he just kept walking menacingly  
toward his tormentor. Sun Boy tried another tactic. He aimed a heat blast  
at Gim's chest. His uniform was singed but that was about it. Colossal Boy  
kept coming.  
  
"He's about as vulnerable as a brick wall," Sun Boy growled to  
himself, unsure of what else to do other than blasting Colossal Boy with  
everything he could muster.  
  
Watching , Violet tried to choke down unwilling pride that welled  
up in her. She was amazed at Gim's ability and determination. Her face went  
gaunt. "But we don't want him to win, because then Tazz wins. Oh, Gim,  
don't fight your best ... please ... please ..."  
  
But Tazz, re-enforcing his hypnotic control with another charge of  
the mental slave-ray, was exhorting: "Battle your best, Colossal Boy, as  
you've never fought before."  
  
"I obey, master," growled the titan, caught in his spell.  
  
Sun Boy had one more trick up his sleeve. As Colossal Boy   
continued to advance him, Dirk waved his arms and threw up an incredible   
wall of flame, heat and brilliant light.   
  
Colossal Boy stopped short of the wall of flame. The air near him  
was getting bad and was being sucked in by the flames. Gim began   
wheezing and fighting for air. His face was red. But he just dropped down  
to the floor and started gulping the better air into his lungs. He started  
crawling toward Sun Boy, going under the wall of flame.  
  
Sun Boy groaned, "That guy isn't human."  
  
In one bravely mad last try at victory, or at the very least, try to  
slow the teen-mountain down, Dirk let loose with volley's of bright light --  
one after the other, in an attempt to blind Colossal Boy.  
  
But Colossal Boy just shrugged the blinding light off with little  
grunts then seized Sun Boy by the arm and flung him through the air  
like some debris that had gotten in his way.  
  
"He went up so high he'll be killed by the drop," gloated Tazz.  
  
Violet put horrified hands in front of her tiny face. "oh, no ... no!"  
she thought ... that big tease ... every bone in his body will break.  
  
In mid-air, twisting agiley, Sun Boy straightened his position and  
his Legion Flight Ring did the rest. Dirk came down slowly and in total  
control to land gently on the floor, no worse for wear. He landed about  
two feet near Invisible Kid and Brainiac 5, who were in shock.  
  
"Did you guys think I was a goner?" chided Sun Boy. But the  
flippant tone in his voice ended, replaced with dismay. "Two down, one  
to go ... against Colossal Boy -- and we're not winning."  
  
  
  
To be continued ... 


	18. Destiny's Decision

LSH: The Battle For The Universe  
  
By Bruce Wayne  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm just borrowing then for a while.   
The characters are owned by DC Comics and I'm writing this just for the fun of   
it.  
  
  
CHAPTER 18 - DESTINY'S DECISION  
  
  
The leader of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Lyle Norg, turned invisible  
to do battle with Colossal Boy. With the assistance of his flight ring, he flew  
into the air and aimed for Colossal Boy's temple. His unseen feet connected  
with Gim's head with a mighty blow that would had smashed down a thick  
oak door.  
  
Invisible Kid thought that his eyes were lying. Colossal Boy should  
be sprawled flat on the floor from the blow. It must be a delusion that he was  
seeing Gim still standing there, only reeling a little and regaining his balance  
while rubbing his head a bit. Colossal Boy then began swinging wildly hoping  
to connect with his unseen adversary.  
  
Lyle kept hammering away at Colossal Boy hoping repeated blows  
might at last do the knockout job. When Gim swung, Invisible Kid cannily  
ducked out of the way. Lyle swung again at the giant's middle, Colossal Boy  
turned and took the blow on his broad back where it did little harm.  
  
Tensing up every muscle in his body, Invisible Kid went into a  
crouch and then drove forward. He slammed his lowered head squarely  
into Colossal Boy's middle.  
  
Gim grunted and sat down. Bouncing back, Lyle also sat on the  
floor, head whirling. That was all he had done, pushed Colossal Boy over  
with his hard plunge. But he was otherwise unhurt and was about to  
clamber back on his feet.  
  
Lyle quickly leaped up, his unseen fists within reach of the sitting  
giant's face before he could rise. Invisible Kid threw everything he had  
into every punch he pounded into Colossal Boy's face, hoping to knock  
him out by sheer brain-bruising slugging.  
  
Suddenly, the roof fell in on Invisible Kid. That was what it seemed  
like when a giant weapon -- five huge knuckles -- blindly exploded against  
his chin.  
  
Lyle's arching body flew backward and landed in a heap against  
a steel post. Lyle reappeared and limped -- crawled -- back to Sun Boy,  
Ultra Boy and Brainiac 5. All four looked at each other with lips set into  
grim lines.  
  
Shrinking Violet came flying down, eyes haunted with horror.  
She knew what they had to do next.  
  
"This is it," Invisible Kid said flatly. "All four of us this time --  
we have to take him out."  
  
"Please," moaned Violet. "Isn't there some other way? Must  
Colossal Boy ..."  
  
Lyle turned hollow eyes on her. "It's either him, and Tazz ... or  
all the people on Earth." His voice went gentle. "Sorry, Vi."  
  
As the girl flew away, he watched her for a long, silent moment.  
Then he drew himself up, still hurting, and gave the command that only  
he could give, and for which he alone was responsible.  
  
"This time, it's kill -- or be killed," Invisible Kid said.  
  
Brainy interrupted, "The Legion constitution says that we can't ..."  
  
"Brainy, if you got a better idea on what to do, I'm open to  
suggestions," Lyle shot back.  
  
Brainiac 5 didn't have any other options to offer.  
  
"Okay," Invisible Kid said, "let's go."  
  
Stepping out into the open, Lyle was poised to aim a kick at  
Colossal Boy's throat. Sun Boy was prepared to hit Gim with a powerful  
heat blast. Ultra Boy was ready to use all his super-strength. Even   
Brainiac 5 picked up an piece of metal to use as a club.  
  
And now they noticed that Colossal Boy held a weapon too,  
something that looked like a gun with a large barrel.  
  
"I signaled the future," called out Tazz, "for them to send the death-  
beam gun, which Colossal Boy will use to mow you down. Prepare for  
death, Legionnaires!"  
  
Fate seemed to hold its breath.  
  
But Shrinking Violet was challenging destiny. The tiny girl flew at Tazz  
at high speed. Checking constantly in his wrist-monitor, Tazz saw Violet coming  
straight toward his face.  
  
"Fool, girl," he cried, "are you trying to attack me?"  
  
He flung a hand up before his eyes protectively. But arriving at bullet  
speed, Violet came at him and grew in size as she hit him in the head. The  
hypnotic mirror that Tazz wore on a headband clattered to the floor.  
  
The noise seemed to snap Colossal Boy out of a trance. He looked  
at the weapon in his hands, bewildered.  
  
"Gim!" screamed Violet, who shrank down to tiny size once again.  
She floated around Colossal Boy's head. "Don't obey Tazz any more. Those  
four advancing are your friends. You are free of Tazz's control. Throw the  
weapon away ... throw it away!"  
  
Colossal Boy hesitated, his half-hypnotized mind still unable to  
think straight. With a curse, Tazz snatched up his hypnotic device and  
fumblingly tried to aim it at Gim.  
  
The four advancing Legionnaires had stopped, and they looked  
on to see what would happen next.  
  
"Gim!" screeched Violet again, desperately. "You are a Legionnaire!"  
  
"Yes," roared Colossal Boy suddenly, twisting the weapon in his   
hands into a tangled wreck. Then he turned balefully toward Tazz, who was  
just shining the violet-green light in his eyes.  
  
A huge hand swept across the villian's face, knocking him a dozen  
feet away. "Now I know who I am, and what you are," bellowed Colossal  
Boy.  
  
"Thank the Stars!" sobbed Shrinking Violet, flying over him.  
  
"We're back together, Legionnaires," Gim said.  
  
"Right, big guy," said Sun Boy, getting there first. "Shake."  
  
A moment later, Sun Boy sagged at the knees as a huge paw   
grasped his. "Me and my big ideas," Dirk groaned. "Let go, you big ape,  
before you crush my superb blast-projection hand."  
  
"But what's this all about?" asked Colossal Boy, puzzled. "The last  
I remember I was charging Tazz up in his room and he was shining some  
kind of light in my eyes."  
  
Brainiac 5 rapidly filled him in.  
  
Colossal Boy's face turned pale halfway through the account, at the  
tragedy that had nearly wrecked their group. Then, in a black fury, he strode  
to Tazz and picked him up by the collar, dangling him off the floor.  
  
"You murderous little pipsqueak!" roared Colossal Boy. "Now  
you're in my power and I'm going to ..."  
  
Tazz shrieked in terror at what he saw in Colossal Boy's eyes.  
  
But Brainiac 5 called out, "Stop, Colossal Boy. We need Tazz  
alive. He was the one who launched the four Earth dooms ..."  
  
The Legionnaires looked at one another, the joy of reunion wiped  
out by this stark realization.  
  
"... and he's going to save the Earth now," finished Brainiac 5.  
  
They all stared. "You've flipped, Brainy," said Sun Boy. "He started  
four destructive processes that even he couldn't stop now."  
  
"He can't halt them very simply," returned Brainiac 5. "Remember  
Tazz is a master of time and knows technology beyond our capabilities.  
He used time-teleportation to travel into the past. He used the time-stopping  
ray to 'freeze' us once. And ..."  
  
Brainy paused and faced the villian. "Tazz can you turn time back-  
ward for Earth ... back to the day before your four dooms began?"  
  
"Yes," nodded Tazz. "And I'll do it if you promise my life is safe  
afterward."  
  
"Agreed," came from Invisible Kid immediately. There simply was  
no other choice, with the fate of a whole world at stake.  
  
  
***  
  
  
"Time," announced Tazz, "will now be reversed for Earth."  
  
They were in Brainiac 5's main lab in the Legion clubhouse, the next  
day. Brainiac 5, Invisible Kid, Saturn Girl and Tazz had worked through the  
night, putting together a vast machine according to the alien's plans. They  
were ready to use it. Tazz depressed the master button. No sound came  
from the machine, no sign of anything happening. But on the wall, the  
chronometer began going backward.  
  
"Down in Antarctica," said Saturn Girl, "the heat device has gone  
dead and ocean waters will recede until the ice cap grows back to its  
original state."  
  
"In the South Pacific," Brainiac 5 picked up, "all eruptions are  
ceasing and the molton magma is flowing back down as the crust heals  
itself of cracks caused by the Vulcan Machine."  
  
Brainy pointed upward.  
  
"Above Earth, the superwind is dying down as the Storm Satellite  
vanishes, whisking back to the future where it came from. And the giant  
comet, drawn by ultramagnetic attraction, is now being driven back into  
space by antimagnetic forces."  
  
Brainiac 5 shrugged. "Don't ask me to explain it in any logical way.  
All I can promise you, from Tazz's formulas and chrono-equations, is that  
in some odd way that 30th century science cannot yet understand, time is  
turning backward and healing Earth of its mortal wounds."  
  
The proof came via the omnicom as news reports said the would-  
be disasters had disappeared and nobody knew why.  
  
"Except us," murmurred Light Lass.  
  
"I have carried out my end of the bargain," said Tazz, stepping  
toward the door. "In turn, my life is spared ..."  
  
Ferro Lad blocked his way. "Agreed, chum. But you're not going  
anywhere -- except back to the 40th century."  
  
"No! ... no ... no!" babbled Tazz frantically, his face reflecting stark  
terror. "Back there I was a defeated conqueror, hated and despised. An  
exile, a condemned man. They will hunt me down ruthlessly and execute  
me ..."  
  
"That's their business," said Invisible Kid shortly, whipping the  
cover off a new apparatus. "Since we only have a time-bubble, we brought  
along your time-teleportation device from the seadome. Brainiac 5 is setting  
the coordinates for the future and now ..."  
  
Tazz was still screaming in protest as a purling ray bathed him, fading  
him out of the 30th century and whisking him to the 40th.  
  
"The worst punishment he could have," said Phantom Girl, "was   
to be sent back to the defeat, disgrace, and death he tried to escape from.  
Tazz the Invader won't have a second chance to try to conquer time and   
change history."  
  
"Oh, well, another job done," drawled Sun Boy, patting back a false  
yawn. "I'm glad I saved the world ... with the help of you other Legionnaires,  
of course."  
  
"Knowing how modest you are," said Shrinking Violet, "I won't  
tell your adoring public that you did it practically single-handedly, or you'd   
be mobbed by screaming girls."  
  
Invisible Kid smiled. All was back to normal.  
  
"Okay," he barked, and added, "Let's celebrate."  
  
  
-- Finis -- 


End file.
